Bob P.'s American Life

I suspect that Eliot White will be pleased with the title of this post. Mr. White, the publisher of the Sun, as well as the Meriden Record-Journal in Central Connecticut, is a bit of a rarity in modern America. He is the publisher of a family-owned newspaper, among just a handful of folks in the United States still to do so. This is too bad. Newspapers published by people who have a vital interest in their local community are the first thing you should be reading. Here are four reasons why: 1)  They are less likely to have an agenda that you can't readily suss out. Put differently, if they do have a secret agenda (for example, "that guy at the Sun really wants to get a casino in town,") chances are it will become apparent. A local paper can end up with a credibility problem if it pushes an agenda. 2)  They put local perspective on national issues. How does the recent tax legislation affect local businesses? What do changes in healthcare legislation mean for local hea

I've been putting off writing in the effort to formulate a piece on the media, but Chelsea Manning's decision to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, reported in Sunday's Washington Post, prompted me to get back in the game. Maybe I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, because Ms. Manning has yet to file with the Maryland State Board of Elections, so this could be a non-story. Be that as it may, in seeing this article, I was reminded of a disturbing trend in American politics. I was also reminded of the guy who is digging a big hole for himself, hits rock bottom, looks up, and asks for a pick. Who's the guy in the hole? It's the American voter. For numerous, complex reasons (which is no excuse), we have increasingly permitted our politics to be conflated with entertainment. I'm not sure how this began, but I'm old enough to know it hasn't always been like this. Maybe it started with Bill Clinton, who was then the governor of Arkansas, playing saxopho