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As President George W. Bush said in 2017, “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. We need an independent media to hold people like me to account. Power can be very addictive. And it can be very corrosive. And it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”
The above serves as an important signpost as we recently have finished a municipal election cycle.
Yet, we must ask how Maine’s media landscape is to properly discharge their duty as the Fourth Estate and as a guardian of transparency, accountability, and truth to power.
Also, the Fourth Estate, political campaigns, and most of the citizenry were all but happy to contribute to the ever-expanding electoral cycle that the 2026 elections have become in 2025.
We just have to look at the Lewiston municipal election for evidence of this phenomenon. What bandwidth that the 2026 elections did not consume, and that not taken by the referendums, left very little to no room for candidates for the city council or the school committee.
Matthew Roy
Lewiston
