Atop the front page of the Washington Post is the assertion that Democracy Dies in Darkness.
This is somewhat limited.
Democracy can die in broad daylight too.
Granted, darkness in this case might not be the literal meaning of the word.
Perhaps it's really saying that democracy can be killed off by willful ignorance, which is certainly an opaque thing.
Regardless, it would seem that the Washington Post itself is dying in full view of its publisher, Jeff Bezos, a business mogul who could prop it up financially with his version of spare change.
The Post was relieved of a third of its newsroom and bureau staff a few days ago.
Yes, this is a hard time in the newspaper industry but, again, the whole point of publishers with deep pockets is that they can keep newspapers afloat in the interests of old fashioned concepts like free speech, the expression of differences of opinion and, yes, a manifested support for good old democracy.
It is worth noting that Rupert Murdoch, not everyone's favorite newspaper mogul, has long dug into his pockets to keep newspapers going, not least the New York Post.
Rupert is an old fashioned guy. He likes newspapers.
Bezos should have a chat with him. Not every paper has a publisher who can match the GDP of some countries.
And not every newspaper, indeed very few of them, can any longer rely on a readership that manages at the same instance to remain creatures of habit while not succumbing to the outrageous misfortune that is mortality.
And then there is technology, IE and the changing habits of the general public. It's a veritable maelstrom out there.
And so we have the likes of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has been a management/employee battleground for years, going out of business on May 3 of this year unless there is a buyer.
And we have the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ceasing its print run and going all digital. A few days ago this august daily laid off fifty workers.
Fifty is small potatoes in today's layoff frenzy. But still and all. Not all this bad news for the print news business is occurring in the United States.
A couple of months back there was a death in County Monaghan. There was a time when just about every passing in the county would be reported by the Northern Standard.
In this case it was the standard itself heading for the morgue. It ceased publication just before Christmas after an existence stretching back to 1839.
The Great Hunger couldn't stop the Standard's presses.
But the realities of our better fed time could. Losing your local paper, your home county's paper, has consequences regardless of changing habits.
One of the consequences is that there will be fewer newsrooms where young journalists can learn the ropes, hone their skills by, in some cases, making big mistakes.
Some countries reckon that newspapers are important enough that they should be subsidized. This happens mostly in Europe, especially in Scandinavia. In Ireland, up until three years ago, newspaper sales were actually taxed at nine percent Value Added Tax.
But then, on a morning in January, 2023 the government of the day fell out of the right side of bed and abolished the levy.
Refunds for all those years of taxation might have been a good idea, but hey, you take what you can get. We live in a pivotal moment in history (doesn't everyone?).
But this one feels different, not least due to the constant howling about "fake news" and the ever louder presence of artificial intelligence - which is anything but artificial.
More than every those who live in democracies and value the concept need to be able to go to trusted news sources, print/digital included. But the going has to be met by something meaningful and useful coming from the other direction.
Darkness isn't one of those things.
