EDITORIAL: Projo Praises Mattiello. Any Ties to Trying to Preserve $700K in Legal Notices?
Monday, September 24, 2018
On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Nick Mattiello joined GoLocal LIVE and when asked about the antiquated statutory requirement that state and local government take out legal notices in the GateHouse owned Providence Journal to the tune of $700,000 in taxpayer cost, Mattiello said he would take a look at it in the upcoming session.
On Sunday, the Providence Journal wrote a glowing editorial about the Speaker — coincidence?
For background, both then-Governor Lincoln Chafee and now sitting Governor Gina Raimondo submitted budget articles to remove the antiquated provision — that is a windfall to the Projo’s out-of-state owners.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe League of Cities and Towns have repeatedly requested that the requirement be eliminated.
In order to protect the corporate subsidy, the Providence Journal has engaged insider lobbyist Joe Walsh’s firm to fend off any reform. In the past three years, Walsh has been paid more than $100,000 according to state lobbying records.
While Walsh has been collecting lobbying fees — GateHouse has been slashing reporters, editors, and photographers.
The Providence Journal wrote in Sunday's editorial, “Steve Frias, who came close to defeating him [Mattiello] two years ago when the district voted for Donald Trump. It would surely boost Mr. Frias’s campaign if Mr. Mattiello’s hold on the speakership could be spun as shaky. That is because many voters are reticent to trade in the state’s powerful speaker — someone who can go to bat for them — for a toothless freshman from a minority party whose members could meet in a phone booth.”
The numerical analogy can be applied to others as well.
The number of remaining Projo news reporters might also fit in a phone booth, after the corporate profit-taking and staff-slashing by GateHouse in Providence.
The Journal is all about preserving the status quo of a state mandate that is decades old and why not -- it's worth $700,000 in subsidies.
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