Our freedom depends on a free press. Fight for it | Letter to the editor

As the Florida Legislature moves to pass legislation removing the requirement that newspapers print legal notices, I would like to point out some reasons why this is a bad idea.

As an elected official, and especially as a former state legislator, I was not always happy with some of the news articles that exposed some of my dumb ideas. I felt that the stories were slanted to make me look bad, and the pictures of me that they printed were some of the worse pictures ever taken.

However, when I was in the Senate, there was a proposed bill presented that would have removed the legal notice printing requirement. That bill was very much like the one that will be heard next week. I worked hard to kill that bill as I was more concerned with the unintended consequences of it passing than I was about the issues it was meant to solve which was primarily the cost of publication. The sponsors were concerned about the price of the printing, I was concerned about the cost of not printing. The cost must include the loss of the free press.

I ask each and every one reading the paper today to remember when there was more content, more local reporting, more local individual advertising, more help wanted ads. Our local newspapers are a dying breed, and the industry is consolidating every day and large cooperate conglomerates take them over. Today in Florida, there are basically two media giants that control at least 75% of the printed media market. And in fact, the McClatchy group, which owns the Bradenton Herald, filed for bankruptcy recently. We are in danger of losing the voice of the free press.

I am very concerned that removing the requirement to publish will put many of the local papers out of business or force them to merge with one of the larger groups. As a veteran, I would fight just as hard to keep a free press as I would to protect the Second Amendment right to possess a gun.

I am worried that with consolidation of the press, we will move towards a single opinion, in the coverage of news and editorials. I am worried that we will totally lose the local coverage, the news that is important to you and me but not of concern for corporate media. I fear that fewer journalists will graduate college and journalism will slowly die as a profession.

Please contact your Florida legislators, protect the free press, protect our right to know, protect your local press.

The free press is the foundation of a free society. Fight for it.

Mike Bennett

Manatee County supervisor of elections

Bradenton

This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 3:34 PM.