With private equity and hedge funds sucking the life out of independent newspapers, journalism is barely hanging on to its last thread.
By: Zafirah 11.2
Note: This article is heavily inspired by and based on an episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj titled “Why the News Industry is Dying.”
Journalism is centered around the truth; people working ‘round the clock to hunt down stories worth telling, stories that needed to be told. Throughout the years, investigative journalists have uncovered every exploitation, abuse of power, and illegal activity that lingers in the shadows of our golden-plated society. Julie K. Brown, an American journalist with the Miami Herald, got so good at uncovering crime that the police- who are notoriously known for taking issue with the press- publicly credited her for uncovering the infamous Jeffery Epstein sex offense case. However, that’s not the only example of important journalistic work— reporter Jim DeRogatis for the Chicago Sun-Times spent over twenty years on singer-songwriter R. Kelly’s child pornography and sexual abuse charges, and reporters at The Washington Post brought down U.S President Richard Nixon. Investigative journalism is essential for holding people accountable, and without it, Jeffery Epstein would still be trafficking underaged girls to his private island.
Nobody wants that.
The free press is something that a lot of nations value, and in an age with a limitless stream of information being shot out left and right, getting accurate and authentic news from the right places is essential for preventing the spread of misinformation. A study done by the Knight Foundation in October 2019 found that six in 10 Americans trust local news over national news, but should they? The leading TV news stations in the U.S (Fox News, CNN, MSNBC) are, for the lack of a better word, a complete and utter mess. Reporters are focused on “selling it,” and the real and important news is often overshadowed by activist reporters. At its worst, the news on TV is filled with gossip and people just yelling at each other incoherently and bringing on low-grade comedians to comment on politics, and at its best, the news is littered with political biases; According to Insider, CNN is largely democratic, Fox News is largely republican, and they’re both inadequate at delivering news neutrally. Because of this, people tend to trust their local newspapers more because of the smaller amount of ground they have to cover, but even then, local TV news is substandard at delivering the news. ABC21’s WPTA- which is a local television station in Fort Wayne, Indiana- once broadcasted for a solid three hours on the ‘mysterious whereabouts of a blue box in the middle of a road.
As Hasan Minhaj so eloquently put it, “We are living in a golden age of nonsense.”
If the local and national news on TV can’t be trusted, what can? The answer is simple: independent newspapers. Like the ones that brought down Jeffery Epstein, R. Kelly, and Richard Nixon, independent newspapers are the epitome of good journalism simply because they’re connected to the community. However, independent newspapers are struggling to stay afloat— in short, they’re going broke. With the surge of modern media, ad revenue levels are lower than they were ever before because of Google and Facebook’s dominance over the field, and online subscriptions just don’t make up for the money lost. The loss of advertising revenue is merely a quarter of the problem, though — the other 75% goes to the ‘grim reaper’ of American newspapers, Alden Global Capital. Called a ‘vulture fund,’ private equity and hedge funds like Alden actively go after dying companies so they can gain financially from it. In its simplest terms, they employ something called a leveraged buyout (LBO), which means taking out loans to buy companies, like independent newspapers, and then pinning the debt onto the independent newspaper. With layoffs and selling off real estate, the independent newspaper goes completely bankrupt while the vulture funds happily roll around in their mountains of stolen cash. It’s gotten so bad that the journalists at the Denver Post took to protesting outside the Alden headquarters as a last resort to save their paper.
The news on television is nonsense, independent newspapers are being sucked dry, and the journalism industry is barely hanging on to its last thread. This isn’t simply about not getting the daily rundown on what’s happening in the world; as newspapers vanish, so does civic engagement. According to NPR, when Alden bought a multitude of independent newspapers, communities saw lower voter turnout for elections, the spread of conspiracy theories, and increased polarization. As a community, there isn’t much to be done— the largest possible impact comes from the demise of capitalism. However, a little goes a long way; supporting your local newspapers and businesses is the best course of action, and here in Regents, the very existence of The Student Record ensures the future of the truth and public accountability.
Journalism is dying, and it’s up to us to save it.
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