Why are we letting financial hucksters dictate our local news?
Too many Americans newspapers have shut down or shriveled to irrelevance, but, luckily, we still have such bastions of local journalism as the Chicago Chronicle and New York News Daily.
But wait … those aren’t real newspapers, aren’t local, and aren’t even American. They are Russian fake-news outlets, created in recent weeks by Vladimir Putin’s propagandists to interfere in our presidential election. They are web publications with names and designs that mimic real U.S. news sites but have no reporters or local newsrooms. Rather, they exist solely to fabricate “news reports” that appear legitimate, getting picked up and re-reported as fact in understaffed, chain-owned newspapers and then promoted on rightwing social media sites.
This is what happens to people and democracy when local journalism is stripped away or hollowed out; no one is on regular watch, allowing charlatans, profiteers and propagandists to dupe unsuspecting residents. Not only have hundreds of papers been eliminated, but half of the remaining dailies are now owned by Wall Street predators like SoftBank, the Japanese hedge fund that controls the huge USA Today/Gannett chain. Their interest is not in your town or quality journalism, but in slashing news coverage to jack up their profits. Such absentee owners have eliminated nearly 60% of America’s reporters and other newsroom staff in just 20 years.
Let’s be clear: Real journalism is labor-driven. No reporters on the ground, no local news. Hello — “news” is the lifeblood of democracy, so why hold it hostage to a handful of corporate profit-seekers? Are we such unimaginative clods that we can’t figure out how to finance honest, non-plutocratic news for our democracy?
For ideas on how to revive local news in your town, contact rebuildlocalnews.org — and give news democracy a boost.