You want to get back at the media? Here's how:

[The Backlash Cometh]

As many REAL activist know, the cost of public records adds up. In Florida, it's .15 a single page, .20 a double page. As a courtesy, cities will give newspaper companies FREE copies of City Commission minutes and attachments. For busy City meetings, this can be a stack of paper six to ten inches thick. You multiply that by the number of local papers in the area and you realize that the city is GIVING away thousands of dollars worth of public records EVERY meeting.

Now, when the newspapers were ACTUALLY doing a service to the community, it all made sense because they were looking after the public interest. Now, they're just an extension of corporations and real-estate interest.

So, what we have is the city applying two sets of laws. One for the newspapers, and the other for individual citizens who are all too often steam-rolled by decisions made in City Hall. To wake up the newspapers, we should make it loud and clear, that as long as they're not representing the public interest, they aren't deserving of special treatment. A person can challenge this favoritism based on the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal Protection under the law. The city should not be applying two different policies.

[greenman3610]

1. Please dont do this shit

The average newspapers are hard pressed to stay in the black.
Pressing them harder on this just makes them
more vulnerable to pressure. How can they afford to
defend journalists rights if they have this kind
of crap to contend with? It should be the practice of
government to make public records available to the
media at no or reduced cost.
this is not a good idea.

A better one is...
let's BECOME the media

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Would it surprise you to know that I got the idea from someone

who supports the free press? They were exasperated about the lack of media scrutiny on important issues. This was five years ago. Believe me, I don't post this here lightly.