Uncovered launched with an article that connects the dots for readers wondering what “news deserts” have to do with officials indulging in zip lines, glass-blowing lessons, first-class flights, luxury resorts, season tickets, golf, and wine (
a lot of wine) using taxpayer money:
Corruption is flourishing in the rural corners of South Carolina as newspapers fold or shrink coverage amid a financially crippling pandemic.
Seven of our state’s newspapers closed their doors in the past year, joining more than 60 that shuttered across the nation as the coronavirus strangled an industry already battered by shrinking revenue and draining job cuts. This only exacerbated a trend that has created so-called “news deserts” in hundreds of U.S. communities, depriving them of vital watchdogs of government and democracy.