This week, we’re taking a step back to look at the decline of local news, and how that has contributed to polarization. Major newspapers and national outlets are great at covering international issues and national politics, but the local news that most affects people is often not being covered. As part of that conversation we highlight the work the Los Angeles Times newsroom has done this week to fact check claims being made nationally that L.A. is a warzone, through vital, on-the-ground reporting.
The stats are staggering. Nearly 3,000 local newsrooms have closed since 2005 and 49.5% of U.S. counties have just a single surviving news outlet. We highlight reporting from the Carnegie Corporation by political scientist Joshua P. Darr, which includes insights on the revenue hits local newspapers took as they saw advertising move from their pages to Facebook and Google, but also describes studies that found split-ticket voting dropped after a newspaper closure, and that “politicians who represent areas with poorer local news coverage do not work as hard in hearings and committee meetings, vote the party line more frequently, and bring back less funding to their districts.” Of course that leads to a decline in civic engagement. Check out the Carnegie report, ‘Does Local News Reduce Polarization,’ as well as commentary from Josh Stearns at U.S. News & World Report — the names here are hyperlinked to connect right back to them.
You’ll also hear some personal stories on how our panelists have seen the race to scoop in the cable and digital era sometimes get it wrong, including from Luis’s time at the White House when a major cable news channel went on air with the wrong conclusion on a Supreme Court decision. And we take a moment to comment on Substack, and the way that it is enabling a connection between experts, journalists, and their readers and viewers that may well help fill some of the gap. (hint: don’t forget to subscribe!)
Of course, this conversation is occurring in the context of protests that are now spreading around the country and as the Trump Administration steps up a very aggressive approach not only towards migrants, but also towards protesters and as we now know, towards U.S. Senators. We’ll comment on the aggressive tactics used on Senator Padilla separately, but we do spend time in this episode denouncing a DHS post that uses an image of Uncle Sam asking Americans to report “all foreign invaders” — an image that CNN reported was previously circulated by far-right accounts. The racial undertones of that post, and its not-so-subtle message for people to turn in their neighbors cannot be ignored. It hardly seems a coincidence that this week President Trump also moved to rename military bases to restore their original Confederate names, and that he did so just a week before Juneteenth.
We end on a positive note, though, polling suggests that even with the news deserts, even with the misinformation flying around on social media and in far-right media echo chambers, the American people are noticing and the President’s disapproval numbers across all major issues are rising.
Thank you for your time and support!
-Luis
Note: At a time of growing polarization, CenterD is about elevating the center, and refusing to let the extremes dominate. We believe most Americans are much more grounded, and we hope they find common ground here. If you agree, please subscribe and share our content. Our panelists are former Obama White House communications advisor and former DHS spokesman Luis Miranda, former Clinton Administration appointee and former Republican senior staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Carl Meacham, and former CBS executive, author and publicist Jeremy Murphy.
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