When I was the editor of a small-town daily, we regularly used FOIAs, and we regularly did battle to have them honored. We regularly won, because Illinois has decent laws in place.

But public bodies frequently chose not to make it easy on us.

For all practical purposes, my former paper no longer exists. One of the city attorneys admitted to me -- probably only because I'm no longer a local journalist -- that it's nice not having any oversight anymore.

God only knows what's going on in all the news deserts now.