[RP TownTalk] Attempt to Repeal Town Crier Code

[David Hiles]

"We do not fund anything that we don't control."
Frank Erwin 1971

It is great to live in a town with a lively political culture.  Let's  
not muzzle it.

The issue of who controls the printing press comes up when people have  
divergent views from the ruling group and worry about being edited out  
of existence.  People want the chance to hear both sides.  Others know  
that they may not always be part of the "in" group.  I don't like being  
told to trust those in power. That doesn't always work out too good.

Chapter 3 tries to establish the Town Crier as a impartial carrier of  
local news, albeit one that devotes lots of space to current office  
holders, without a mechanism for systematically including the opinions  
of the outs.  I liked the return of the letters section, which had some  
potential in that area.  When I thought about weakening the  
independence of the editor, I considered whether or not I would like  
the results if various sainted/devilish past mayors had a controlled  
Crier or an independent Crier.  We were starting to see an independent  
Crier over the last six months and we were getting some great stuff.   
An independent Crier with a strong editor is in the best interests of  
our community.


For an example of the struggle against gov't control of an independent  
paper, see the article at the following link.

http://www.godwinslaw.org/weblog/archive/2005/03/25/elect-the-daily- 
texan-editor

WE are who we have been waiting for.
http://riverdalepark.blogspot.com/