Sen. Maria Cantwell is doing her best to save local journalism. It would sure be nice if some Senate Republicans supported the effort to keep Americans informed.
Cantwell just introduced a bill that would provide a five-year lifeline to local news outlets and save thousands of journalist jobs. She’s planning a hearing in September and to get the bill passed by year end.
This is one of several measures needed to stop the death spiral of local news outlets, so they’ll survive until longer-term fixes, such as antitrust reform and new business models, take hold.
Cantwell detailed the journalism crisis with a bracing report last October, highlighting that most states lost half their working journalists as newspaper revenues fell 70 percent over the last 20 years.
Saving local journalism dovetails with another priority — to increase broadband’s reach and accessibility. Both address a pressing question: How are Americans going to be informed in the coming decades?
“That’s what this is all about,” she told me during a far-ranging interview.
A former RealNetworks executive, Cantwell talks of the value of content and business models that build trust and communities. But the goals are now to be sure that people continue getting critical knowledge.
My take is that huge investments by the federal government are setting up the country for a good run of prosperity, innovation and strength. Newspapers need to be part of that, so we aren’t talking against each other and local communities thrive.
Cantwell put a finer edge on it.
“To me newspapers are community,” she said. “I think one thing we’ve found in the information age is, if we don’t have community you’re going to have more disruption. So you have to look for the vehicles that drive community and drive trust.
“Why? Because there’s so much misinformation or mischaracterization of information, it’s really important to have those trust and community builders. And local journalism has got it, they’ve maintained it, that’s what our report shows.”
Cantwell introduced the Local Journalism Sustainability Act on July 22. It mirrors a House version with bipartisan support, including cosponsorship by Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside.
The act would provide $250 tax credits to households subscribing to local news outlets, plus tax credits to publishers employing journalists and small businesses advertising in local media.
Democratic support
Powerful Democrats are on board. Cantwell now chairs the Commerce Committee, and co-sponsor Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is Finance chair. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is also supportive, Cantwell said.
The pandemic made clear to Cantwell the need to preserve local media. While urging Yakima County residents to wear masks during a severe outbreak, she wondered who actually saw the messages, since only 42 percent of the county has adequate broadband.
“I thought, oh my God, what if there wasn’t the Yakima Herald (Republic), how much worse would the situation have been if you didn’t have connectivity and you didn’t also have the Yakima Herald? How would anybody have known anything about what was going on?”
Democrats may be able to push the local-journalism bill through alone. But it would be best to have at least some Republicans on board, supporting this constitutionally protected infrastructure of democracy. If the GOP is upset about coastal media and Facebook, why not save local news outlets that better reflect their conservative communities? Some House Republicans acknowledge this, and the economic and civic gains that local papers provide.
A dashboard produced by the University of North Carolina journalism school shows the disconnect in the 200-plus counties, largely rural and Republican, that now have no local news outlet.
Cantwell said she’s hoping Republicans join her in supporting the local journalism bill, but it needs to get done either way.
“The challenge is there are still those who want to talk about President Trump and Section 230 provisions, and that will get a lot more press than ‘what is the state of your local newspaper?’ ” Cantwell said.
Yet she doesn’t want this to become a partisan disagreement and avoided saying things that would make it harder to get Republican support.
That seems to be a smart approach, and great leadership, addressing an information crisis that desperately needs a cooperative response.
Brier Dudley is editor of the Save the Free Press Initiative at The Seattle Times.
