Do local papers defend democracy argues Shafer?

American newspapers have never been so loved as the moment when they appear to be dying.

writes Jack Shafer over at Slate whilst reminding us of the words of Bill Moyers who wrote against the notion that

"the dominant institutions of the press are guardians of democracy. They actually work to keep reality from us, whether it's the truth of money in politics, the social costs of 'free trade,' growing inequality, the resegregation of our public schools, or the devastating onward march of environmental deregulation."

Shafer agrees with the synopis and he does with Adrian Monck who argued that democracy survived well enough before we had the 19th century mass media

On those occasions that newspapers do produce the sort of work that the worshippers of democracy crave, only rarely does the population flex its democratic might

adding that

The last century of newspapering proves that no publication can keep government and the powerful accountable for long.