主播大秀

Gary O'Donoghue meets local newspaper editors in America to hear about the challenge of reporting during a divisive presidential election campaign.
In Kansas, Gary visits Eric Meyer, the owner and editor of the Marion County Record. In August 2023 the paper鈥檚 offices, and the home of its 90-year-old owner, Eric鈥檚 mother Joan, were raided by the town's five person police department. The following day Joan died. Such a raid on a newspaper is rare in America, and this was picked up nationally. A year later, the police chief Gideon Cody has been charged with interference with judicial process.

Americans take more and more of their news from digital sources and partisan news sources. Squeezed by digital alternatives, local newspapers in America are disappearing - almost 3,000 newspapers, mostly weeklies, have closed since 2004 according to a report by Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Gary hears how local media has become part of the culture wars. Local papers find themselves reporting on, and caught up in, divisive political battles over local institutions such as the school, police, municipality. A "good old fashioned newspaper war" has been playing out鈥� in Westcliffe, Colorado, where Gary meets Jordan Hedberg, editor of the Wet Mountain Tribune. In the same town, the Sangre de Cristo Sentinel, promises 鈥渁 different view from the same mountains鈥�.

Gary also hears about how trust in local news, which has traditionally played a big part in local politics, is being eroded. According to recent analysis from Pew Research trust in local newspapers is at its lowest in recent years and there is a clear party divide, with Democrats 16 points more likely than Republicans to have at least some trust in the information they get from local news outlets (79% versus 63%).

Presenter: Gary O'Donoghue
Producer: Philip Reevell
A Communicorp production for 主播大秀 World Service