“Local news is in a state of crisis that has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote a group of 19 mostly Democratic U.S. senators in a letter to Senate leaders earlier this month. The lawmakers, including R.I. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, are urging direct federal funding to support local journalism during a time when information – and understanding what it means – can be a matter of life and death for both people and businesses.
The rapid shutdown of many state economies to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus has nearly dried up already declining advertising revenue, leading to staff and salary cuts and threatening the long-term survival of many news outlets.
Countless other individual businesses, including thousands in Rhode Island, are of course suddenly in the same predicament.
But the added public-service role of news outlets places journalists in the categories of “essential workers” and, yes, “first responders” who every state and community relies on in times of crisis. Yet, the senators noted, local news is becoming scarcer when it is needed most.
The senators are urging funding for the industry in federal COVID-19 response legislation. A lack of Republican support, however, means it needs to be part of a future funding package, according to Reed’s office.
Preserving community advocates and crucial information sources during a global crisis is not about personal politics. It’s a question of what we want our communities to be like whenever we make decisions, be it in the current crisis or what comes next.
