"Daddy, what's a local paper?"

A whole nation of small local corruptions (which used to be the meat-and-potatoes of the print media, back when America had real local papers and local reporters) is at least as big a deal as an International scandal. 

How we are going to discourage it in this new age of media consolidation is anybody's guess. I have no more idea what goes on in my own home town than I do in yours, there is no local investigative reporting going on, there are no courthouse or police station stringers. all reports are national, if not global. By satellite we are ALL the same distance from New York: remote.

While most municipalities have a usable website, and a cable channel carrying the required public meetings, a good local reporter would cover everything else, pursue the whys of the conflicts, the local history of the issues, and know the thinking behind the players, the winners and losers.  

Now my "local paper" (weren't there two?) reads like the editor has never been here and nobody's even phoning it in.