Democracy and Media

An important government meeting was once called but closed to the media. The assembled leaders produced a 5,000-word document, finalized early enough to be manually typeset by the close of the proceedings.

Within weeks, it was reproduced by newspapers in every state. It came to preoccupy the nation's signed and unsigned editorialists, as well as its political reporters. It prompted conventions across the nation - which we know far more about because they were all open to the media.