Update; As of June 16, 2025, the paywall is back. Perhaps they didn’t pay and their paywall got paywalled?
The recent decision by local newspapers to remove their paywalls coinciding with a state senator’s campaign for Georgia’s Attorney General (AG) raises significant concerns about journalistic integrity, public interest, and the evolving priorities of media institutions. While the move may be positioned to seem like a public service, it reflects deeper issues that undermine both journalism’s credibility and its economic viability. Box sales were dead when I printed Griffin Daily News in 1997. Ad revenues have been gutted by primarily Google ever since 1999.
Newspapers increasingly rely on paywalls to sustain revenue in an era of declining print subscriptions and ad income. By dismantling these barriers seemingly at the request of a political candidate, outlets risk sacrificing financial stability for short term political leverage. This decision prioritizes catering to a campaign’s needs over supporting the longterm health of journalism. A dangerous precedent that could force newsrooms to increasingly kowtow to political figures seeking free publicity.
During the Eagle’s Landing Cityhood & in recent years, media institutions have acted as de facto campaign tools for favored politicians rather than neutral arbiters of information.
When newspapers bend to political requests, it fuels perceptions of bias and undermines their role as independent watchdogs. Readers may question whether coverage is shaped by editorial judgment or the influence of candidates seeking an edge. In Georgia’s AG race, for instance, free access coinciding with one candidate’s stories might lead audiences to assume favorable treatment, weakening trust in both the outlet and the electoral process itself.
The decision reduces journalism to a transactional commodity, where content is freely given not because it serves public interest but because it aligns with political agendas. This devalues the effort required for rigorous reporting and analysis, suggesting that news is merely a tool for campaigns rather than a product of journalistic rigor.
This move sets a troubling precedent: political figures can sway media decisions by leveraging their influence, leading to more frequent requests for preferential treatment in future elections. Smaller candidates or underfunded newsrooms may struggle to compete, further consolidating power in the hands of those with resources or connections.
While newspapers might justify removing paywalls as a public service during pivotal races like Georgia’s AG election, the underlying motives and implications warrant scrutiny. Such actions prioritize political expediency over journalistic independence, risk financial instability for outlets, and distort electoral fairness. To maintain credibility and sustain quality journalism, media institutions must resist becoming pawns in political campaigns, ensuring their paywall strategies and editorial decisions serve readers, not just candidates. The public deserves transparency about such choices to trust both the news and its sources of information.
You don’t have to believe my criticism on faith alone. I did prove them wrong. The stringency of the ORR you see here should have been done by the journalists. Setting the first errors in due diligence aside. The Society of Professional Journalist’s ethics guidelines are meaningless. It’s outside the scope of this post to share with you all I shared with journalist’s who covered my false arrest. Suffice to say, that which you now read is the story they won’t publish.
Either way. I’m not losing my home to you scoundrels, now or then. Consider the following in your comparison. Local media coverage fails to inform you of precedent setting court cases. I don’t want Brian Strickland as State AG. I don’t want him as Georgia Judiciary Committee Chairman.
You can read for yourself Strickland’s defense of Susan Clowdus lying to police right here. Please note, the police she lied to lived in Eagle’s Landing. My first Judge, Brown, was unseated after my case landed on his desk. He lived in Eagle’s Landing too, but he doesn’t now.
And you can read all the e-mails sent to the county by Atlanta & Henry media here. Please note, there isn’t a single open records request by any of these professional journalists anywhere in this pile.
Finally. One of my first open records requests led to the e-mail that made the lawsuit work. An e-mail, not beholden to 50-18-70 ORR exemptions, no one in the news media could find. Nor would they talk to me about their errors when the civil cases were settled.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.