Some say the pandemic was to blame for the closed doors and the lack of public scrutiny. Could be. But it was ultimately the absence of sunlight that created fertile ground for Project Pascalis to take root. 

It was the absence of a critical media eye that allowed this public-private development scheme to grow into a $100 million boondoggle so riddled with wrongdoing that — once finally brought into the open — it drew an immediate and well-organized citizens’ opposition that culminated in two lawsuits alleging wide-ranging violations of ethics and state law, with the larger of the two naming the City of Aiken, the Mayor, the developers, and over two dozen members of City Council, the Economic Development Commission, and the Design Review Board, among others.

In the absence of media spotlight over the past two years, it was ordinary people, not local media, who ultimately brought this story to the public this spring. It was ordinary people who raised questions of ethics and law. It was independent writers who volunteered their time and skills to research and to independently publish their findings about Project Pascalis, reducing the Aiken Standard’s coverage to irrelevance and mere fodder for criticism.

To be fair, the Aiken Standard has been flailing against its own demise for years, between declining circulation, falling ad sales, worker shortages, and even carrier shortages, which left many daily papers, including ours, frequently undelivered for a string of months last winter. We kept our subscription, but others no doubt didn’t. Those looking for ways to cut corners in this difficult economy likely welcomed the excuse to cancel their subscriptions.

The evidence of the newspapers’ struggles is plain to see. The State newspaper out of Columbia, for instance, has resorted to high pressure sales tactics not unlike those used by car-warranty robocallers. The Aiken Standard in recent months appears to have resorted to using budget ink, or to thinning the ink to the extent it’s all but invisible some days.

So who’s left to afford the price of sunlight these days?

Keeping an eye on government, business and industry takes money. Keeping qualified staff takes money. Keeping the presses running takes money. Producing quality, investigative journalism isn’t cheap, and the cost of ink to uncover corruption in high places can run especially high — all the more when a newspaper’s revenue flow depends on the very wrongdoers in need of scrutiny and investigation.

So how are newspapers to afford sunlight, when it’s a challenge just to keep the lights on in the newsroom?

My 94-year old mother, who’s lived long enough to know a few things, recently told me she started donating to the Post and Courier’s ”Uncovered“ project, which funds investigative journalism. I initially pooh-poohed the idea, arguing, ”Why should we pay newspapers to do what they’re already supposed to be doing?”

Then I read an “Uncovered” investigative report titled, “News Deserts and Weak Ethics Laws Allow Corruption to Run Rampant in SC,” which more or less answered my question. As the “Uncovered” report explained in its introduction:

“Corruption festers when people aren’t looking, when the spotlight doesn’t shine. Without fair scrutiny, public officials with weak ethical backbones bend the rules. They help themselves to public money. They help their cronies instead of people they represent. Like a virus, corruption mushrooms, and so do the costs to you and other members of the public. Sunlight can disinfect, but South Carolina has lost some light.”

So maybe my mother is right. Even as the local newspaper persists in ignoring or downplaying the groundswell of public opposition to Project Pascalis, the answer is not to turn out the lights, but to make sure they stay on. Those of us who have been working in the vacuum left by an absent media are hoping the Aiken Standard, The Post and Courier, and their parent company, Evening Post Publishing, will give some thought to our local newspaper’s role in Project Pascalis. 

A good place to start would be the front page article, “Impact of Pascalis,”  in today’s Sunday paper. Somewhere between the hollow efforts to put a positive spin on this project, and the wall of photographs of the buildings slated for the wrecking ball looms the question, ”Whose interests are served by this article?” 

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More links here: 

The Uncovered Project

Post and Courier’s Uncovered project wins National Headliner Award

Report from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media: News Deserts and Vanishing Newspapers: Will Local News Survive?