The Chattanooga City Council unwisely supports a legislative effort to let government bodies pull legal notices from the Times Free Press and put them only on the Internet. Regrettably, the city of East Ridge is moving in that direction, too. Like Chattanooga, the East Ridge City Council wants to bypass the newspaper and advertise its meetings only on the city’s little-read website.
East Ridge says that would boost “public participation in government.” Yet its website has only a handful of visitors, compared with average daily circulation of over 73,000 for the Times Free Press from Monday through Friday. It is true that the paper is paid for running the ads, so it may seem self-serving for us to argue against removing them. But keeping the public in the dark about government actions has a far higher price.
One councilman in East Ridge rightly asked about people who read the newspaper but do not have Internet access. He was told the city could send information from legal notices to residents who call to request it. But even if residents knew what to ask for, it would be costly if the city had to start mailing notices of meetings and such to very many people.
Unfortunately, government often seeks to operate outside public view. Removing legal notices from the paper, where they can be easily found, won’t boost participation in government. It will reduce public awareness of the actions of government.
Bills that would pull legal notices from newspapers should be rejected.