Incoming U.S. Rep. George Santos is toxic. On Jan. 3, the first day U.S. House members assembled this year, Santos was friendless. Reports indicate that as he approached his office at the Capitol that morning and saw reporters gathered in the hall, he turned around and ran away. Later, as lawmakers debated the selection of their next speaker, he was seen sitting alone at the back of the chamber, quietly Since his November election to represent New York’s 4th Congressional District, Santos has become persona non grata, with widespread calls for his resignation even from members of his own Republican Party.
The clamor arose after Santos admitted that virtually everything on his public biography is false. His claims of holding university degrees and his work record were proven lies. He claimed his grandparents had survived the Holocaust, although they are devout Catholics. Prosecutors in Brazil, where his mother had worked as a nurse, want Santos to return to face charges of fraud and forgery; they say he stole and used checks that belonged to his mother’s patients.
Widespread knowledge of these falsehoods, which Santos now calls “stupid things,” arose after The New York Times reported on them on Dec. 23 — long after he was elected as part of the Republican sweep of his Long Island region. However, the information had been published four months earlier, before the election, by a small local paper in Santos’ district, The North Shore Leader in Oyster Bay, N.Y.
Whether wider disclosure of the falsifications might have affected Santos’ electability can’t be known, but as an exodus of subscribers and advertisers drives hundreds of local U.S. newspapers into insolvency, this case shows both the challenges they face, and why they’re still needed.
“A local paper did (report the story), but it didn’t get moved up to … cable news … and the big network affiliates,” CNN analyst Errol Louis said recently.
Most of our nation’s 435 congressional districts, like New York’s 4th, are in areas that aren’t in any major media markets, and thus are ignored by major papers and networks. Only a local newspaper will look into candidates’ federally mandated disclosure forms such as personal information and financial data. Santos’ lies might never have become widely known is someone at The Times hadn’t stumbled upon the Oyster Bay report.
Local media often are the only eyes focused upon public officials and candidates. Without that vigilance it’s easier for crooks to win election based on lies, and get away with misdeeds once they are in office and gain access to taxpayers’ money.
It can’t be denied that many of our country’s current political problems are the result of the public’s increasing use of misinformation spread by internet sites that publish rumor, inaccuracies and innuendo, rather than legitimate news outlets that verify information — and tell readers where they got it, so they can do their own fact checking.
The era of misinformation is still young, but the problems it’s causing already are significant, and growing. Those who might not realize the value of local news should take stock of our growing problems, and ask: What is the truth worth?
