LETTER: Praise for paper that sounded alarm about Santos deserved

To Ozaukee Press:

As soon as I moved to Port Washington, I subscribed to Ozaukee Press. The reason I subscribed was because of a long-standing concern about newspapers in the United States being co-opted by corporations that hold a tight reign on journalists, influenced by the ability to obtain advertising, their current political posture and a trend toward “dumbing down” the news. As a result, newspapers have ended up being weak on research and late on keeping their readers up to date on substantive issues.

The editorial in the Jan. 5 Ozaukee Press, which focused on George Santos, brought this problem to light by honoring the North Shore Leader, the newspaper of Locust Valley, N.Y. The comparison to the New York Times, with its esteemed reputation, was compelling.

Thank you for this editorial and the salient quote from Dean Tim Franklin.

S.D. Wittenbrink

Port Washington

Editor’s note: Reporting by the North Shore Leader in September revealed claims by Santos were shaky or outright false. The quote to which the writer refers is from the dean of the prestigious Medill School of Journalism, who said, “If we don’t fix the crisis in local news, we’re going to see more George Santos-type cases and instances of politicians going unchecked.”