The Nation: Journalism Cannot Be a Covid-19 Casualty

The Nation: Journalism Cannot Be a Covid-19 Casualty

“Local media is a critical source of news and information for communities, holds our government accountable, and plays an important role in our civic engagement,” argues former member of the Federal Communications Commission Michael Copps, who now counsels Common Cause on media issues. “But the health crisis our nation faces combined with the long-term decline in local news has left many communities without adequate sources of trustworthy news on the pandemic and has created a void in civic information. Congress must act now to ensure local news is adequately funded in order to meet the information needs of communities.”

There is no freedom of the press without the press. And the press is threatened, as never before, by the coronavirus pandemic.

Already struggling before the virus hit and the economy shut down, local media has been rocked so hard over the past two months that the Poynter Institute for Media Studies reports, “It’s getting hard to keep track of the bad news about the news right now.” The research arm of the journalism group has been trying, however—maintaining an ever-expanding list of the thousands of journalism jobs that have been lost or diminished in a wave of closings, cutbacks, layoffs, firings, furloughs, and general downsizing that has gutted print, digital, and broadcast newsrooms. According to a New York Times survey, roughly 36,000 media workers in the United States have been laid off, furloughed, or seen their pay reduced. “Hunger for news in a time of crisis has sent droves of readers to many publications,” explained Times. “But with businesses paused or closed—and no longer willing or able to pay for advertisements—a crucial part of the industry’s support system has cracked.”

It’s not cracked. It’s broken.

Journalism cannot survive, and certainly not thrive, without resources. And those resources are not coming from a “free market” that has stalled out. There has to be a federal fix, and that means that Congress must include muscular support for journalism in stimulus measures.

“Local media is a critical source of news and information for communities, holds our government accountable, and plays an important role in our civic engagement,” argues former member of the Federal Communications Commission Michael Copps, who now counsels Common Cause on media issues. “But the health crisis our nation faces combined with the long-term decline in local news has left many communities without adequate sources of trustworthy news on the pandemic and has created a void in civic information. Congress must act now to ensure local news is adequately funded in order to meet the information needs of communities.”