Reading this Globe story about the controversy over the Plymouth Independent’s aggressive coverage of town government and issues, I thought to myself that maybe part of the problem is that the news startup might be too good and big-time for Plymouth. … Let me explain by first telling you about a hilarious novel I read years ago, Dwarf Rapes Nun; Flees in UFO, about a Rupert Murdoch-like media mogul who buys a sleepy Midwestern newspaper and turns it into a screaming tabloid. In the novel, the small city was turned upside down and never the same. … Except the exact opposite type of journalism has hit Plymouth: high-quality, aggressive, thorough reporting by a small team of veteran journalists who include ex-Globe editor Mark Pothier (now editor of the Independent) and ex-Globe investigative reporter Andrea Estes. According to Dan Kennedy, none other than Walter Robinson, a Plymouth resident known for overseeing the Globe Spotlight Team’s historic coverage of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, is a director of the nonprofit Independent. After the digital site’s launch in 2023, Plymouth has been turned upside down and never the same since. …

I have no doubt Dan Kennedy is right when he suggests that government officials have probably grown too “accustomed to operating without much scrutiny” since the digital-era demise of local journalism. So the Independent’s arrival must indeed come as a shock to town leaders in Plymouth. But I’m not sure Plymouth has ever seen, even during the heyday of the Old Colony Memorial, anything like the high-powered journalism they’re getting today. … And I hope they keep getting it. The Independent is doing its job. Plymouth taxpayers should feel fortunate to have an independent institution so closely covering their town issues and government.