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A free press is indispensable to a free society
A free press is one of the bulwarks of a free society. One of the vital roles of the press is to encourage citizens to participate in government by keeping them fully informed about life, law, politics, economics and other things that matter.
The nation's founders believed a free press needed to be among the basic freedoms protected by the First Amendment, and newspapers remain the way we get detailed information about news, opinions and products that affect us every day.
Americans have used newspapers from the earliest days of the nation to talk to each other – newspapers are where we exchange information and opinions, hawk products and ideas, praise our heroes or attack our enemies and sift through the news of the day for what's vital or just interesting to us.
Newspapers document the workings of public officials, help roust scoundrels, hold the powerful accountable and – for individuals as well as the nation – both celebrate our lives and record our most tragic moments.
For most citizens, their newspaper – often termed the "first draft of history" – covers their most important moments: birth announcement, maybe a story about a youth sports or academic success, a graduation list, a marriage announcement – sometimes followed by a divorce legal notice – and an obituary: the real stuff of our lives.
Community newspapers like ours give the details of what happened yesterday, the inner workings of what is happening today and the best information about what's likely to happen tomorrow – traffic alerts, home sales, local policy debates and what's "on sale."
Newspapers are where we as a people debate the issues and ideas that are important to us. From editorials expressing the opinion of the paper to "op-ed" pages carrying the opinions of columnists and writers of letters to the editor, we hash out publicly how we feel about our government, our neighbors, our schools and a multitude of other subjects.
Newspapers can – and perhaps should – enlighten, infuriate, encourage, inform, expose, excoriate and exult, sometimes all in a single issue. They uniquely provide the foundation for a free press and have an irreplaceable daily role in defining and protecting "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in the United States.
America just wouldn't be "American" – we would not be a free people and democracy would not function – without newspapers.
As we mark National Newspaper Week (Oct. 3-9), we're proud of the role we play in our community and honored to continue our nation's tradition of a free press.
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