I’m old(er). When (and where) I grew up there was a local daily newspaper. A local weekly newspaper. A regional newspaper and a few statewide/national newspapers. Often there were articles from the bigger newspapers in the regional or local daily. BUT on occasion the bigger newspapers picked up news from the local papers.

The debacle of the George Santos election and reporting in New York has pushed news coverage to the front lines again. What happened at The NY Times? NY Post? Long Island Newsday?

After the New York Times and other publications FINALLY reported that newly elected Rep. George Santos probably didn’t descend from Holocaust survivors or run an animal-protection charity, or [gestures broadly] any of it, many suggested that it would have been more helpful for the press to dig into this before the election.

“This would all have been exposed before the election if local newspapers were not running on fumes,” tweeted former Senator Claire McCaskill.

A few news cycles later it emerged that actually the local press had reported on the Santos story. A local paper, the North Shore Leader, had declared that the Republican nominee was “most likely just a fabulist—a fake.”

It is just an embarrassment. Santos’ entire life is m most likely a lie. Santos is a really just a petty criminal from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is currently wanted in Brazil on criminal charges of committing elder fraud and check forgery. He stole checkbooks from the elderly patients of his late mother – who was a home healthcare nurse – and forged the checks to steal merchandise, according to prosecutors in Brazil.

What is striking is that his new colleagues in the republican party seem to be OK with it. How ironic that Republicans would cast out Liz Cheney, a lifelong conservative, for seeking truths about a different liar, but about Santos, the party of Honest Abe has remained silent.

Now it seems he is being accused of extensive campaign finance violations. Are any of us surprised?

For our democracy to work we need to be focused on more than getting power for a party and keeping power. There are realm issues that need to be worked on.

I want us to be better than all of this.