We should all be a little concerned about the latest palace intrigues at The Washington Post. The Post is, after all, the one major and credible newspaper we have left in this wider region, and it should give us all the jitters to think that something, anything, could transpire that would diminish it. Even if it is a shadow of its former self as it was during the heyday of Katherine Graham, the paper is an invaluable asset to the region, and to the nation, as one of only a handful of such publications left in the U.S. in these complex and uncertain times. There may be only the New York Times and Wall Street Journal besides The Post that we, the public, can rely on for responsible and courageous journalism, and even they are famously not totally reliable or honest. Everything else is digital, not presented as something we can fold up in a jacket pocket, scribble on or underline for the benefit of our memories, or drop in an envelope to mail to a friend. Instead we can barely keep track of Internet news because it is here today and, blink!, gone a fraction of a second with a single click of a mouse or until after the next dancing painkillers commercial.

We will not let this issue go readily because there is simply too much at stake for our lives and our freedoms, whether anybody is paying attention or not.

Sadly, we are now the only general interest newspaper in this entire region that is certified to publish official legal notices as we’re the only one that qualifies by providing “total market coverage” for readers in our coverage area. Even in the heyday of print newspapers, before TV to begin with, “total market coverage” was at best a fraction of a total demographic area, but enough to function as a statistically demonstrable carrier of general public information for an area.

Moreover, for purposes of illustration, our editor has often told the story of how his mother used to clip little articles that included his name, even in tiny type in a long list of attendees at a youth camp, for example, out of their hometown newspaper and save them for dozens of years to slip into a letter to him as a fond memory and token of affection. It was a wonderful tradition. Others, of course, would assemble scrapbooks to preserve notices and articles in a like manner.

We applaud the move by billionaire Jeff Bezos to step in and to buy The Post and to keep it going despite massive losses said to be over $70 million a year. We hope The Post will do whatever it can to stay in this business. It is sorely needed, as Bezos himself acknowledged in contributing to the creation of its new famous front page slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

Yes, dear reader, legitimate newspapers don’t just contribute to democracy. They are democracy.