Word: chastening
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...citizens and an essential component of a working democracy. Newspapers would serve two main purposes: first, they would keep citizens informed of and involved in the local and national affairs, educating them in order to foster a better citizenship. Second, the knowledge that an independent press existed would chasten public officials and check their potential excesses. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about newspapers during the early nineteenth century in his monumental work Democracy in America: "So the more equal men [sic] become and the more individualism becomes a menace, the more necessary are newspapers. We should underrate their importance...
...said he had in fact ordered some work on his house but knew nothing about the damage to the reef. "If all this is going to become news, I'm gone," he told the Royal Gazette. "I am going to sell my houses and leave." The threat seemed to chasten Bermuda officials, who quickly reported that there was no evidence Perot or anyone in his family had known about or authorized the "jackhammering" of the reef or other violations by Perot's contractors. But a government spokesman said the reef had been damaged and promised to investigate further...