When you can't back up facts

[s_stabeler]

Was there supposed to be a "b)"?

I forgot to think of a second point, so technically no.

[s_stabeler]

As for getting the archives of local papers, maybe check the local libraries? Most of them should be doing newspaper archiving of their own, even if the paper itself isn't doing it for some reason.

considering we are talking about smaller papers, it's a fair bet that storage space is the reason they don't bother. I mean, they either have to have large enough offices to store the papers in question, or they have to get microfilm equipment- which I really doubt is cheap to either buy or operate. If the paper has a small circulation to begin with...

[Aragarthiel]

I know the few stores and doctor's offices and such in the little town nearby where the paper is printed will have older copies, but they usually only keep two or three different papers on hand at a time and I'm not running around town walking into every single business to read their papers on the off chance I find the one I need. It's just not worth it to prove to a bunch of idiots that the coroner is also an idiot.

[wolfie]

or they have to get microfilm equipment- which I really doubt is cheap to either buy or operate. If the paper has a small circulation to begin with...

Why would any newspaper nowadays use microfilm for archival storage? Should be cheaper to go straight to digital, while also being suitable for re-use or monetization (doesn't take many copies of old articles sold at a nominal fee to make a web store a viable thing).

[s_stabeler]

similar problem- even if you are smarter than simply scanning an image of each page ( which could easily result in 25MB per article storage being necessary) it would take up more space than you'd think. There's a reason that Google has several datacentres.

[Andara Bledin]

No. Scans just aren't that large any more.

An entire paper likely wouldn't take up 25mb. A straight scan to pdf of a larger format book with text and images sharing nearly every page with over 300 pages only comes out to 125mb. Each article would end up significantly smaller than 1mb and an entire paper would be likely to be significantly less than your 25mb/article guess.

Plus, Google has several data centers for redundancy and and speed. And, you know, indexing the entirety of the Internet.

The real cost would be the tagging of each article so that it could be searched. But even that would be a bonus and not a requirement.

[Aragarthiel]

There's been an update to this case. The coroner in question plead guilty to breaking his oath of office and has been sentenced to ten years of probation. He was forced to withdraw his candidacy in the upcoming election for coroner as well, though why he was allowed to run in the first place is beyond me.

[HYHYBT]

Thanks for the update.