In Colonial times you may find estranged spouses fighting it out in the newspaper. Today you may still see husbands saying they are not financially responsible for their wife’s debts in newspapers.
Back then it was called posting. It got down and dirty bringing up abuse and adultery to name a few. Since the wives were basically owned by their husbands, the only thing the women had was the paper to tell their side of the story.
The postings were used as punishment by men and women. The Connecticut legislature made it mandatory that if someone wanted to start divorce proceedings they had to print a Petition for Divorce in a newspaper. Apparently there were more divorces back then than we think.