Recent headlines mark yet another unprecedented attack on the news media: President Trump kicked three major TV news networks out of the White House press pool because, he explained, he didn’t like their coverage.
It’s the latest in a steady drumbeat of attacks on the press.
Earlier this year, New York Times journalists were served subpoenas after revealing security flaws in the president’s new Air Force One.
Pentagon officials fired the publisher, editor and a reporter for Stars and Stripes, a longtime independent newspaper for the military community, days after reporting on conditions aboard the USS Lincoln.
Reporters have been shot with rubber bullets or tear gassed while covering ICE protests. An ongoing campaign to discredit and undermine trust in news outlets who report stories that politicians don’t want reported has done serious harm to the public’s trust in the media.
Underneath the headlines about attacks on national media is another, perhaps even more dire crisis: the decline of local news.
Countless reporters have been laid off as corporate buyouts hollow out once-vital local papers. Many others have left journalism as low pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living. Declining advertising revenue, political polarization, and social media’s supplanting of traditional news sources have squeezed small newspapers and digital sites to the breaking point. The rise of artificial intelligence adds new questions about the sustainability of local media.
The scale of the collapse of local news is staggering — since 2002, the number of local journalists in the U.S. has fallen 80%, according to Rebuild Local News, a nonprofit that works to strengthen local reporting. On average, 2.5 newspapers shut down each week somewhere in the U.S.
News deserts have grown across New Mexico as well — much of the state’s eastern half, west and southwest have severe deficits of local reporters, according to Rebuild Local News’ analysis.
Meanwhile, secrecy in state government has grown more pervasive in New Mexico. State agencies routinely hide information from the public, sometimes in violation of public records laws and sometimes by exploiting legal loopholes that allow agencies to skirt transparency.
Reporter Esteban Candelaria published a story this week detailing one such practice — even after the state legislature passed a law aimed at increasing transparency at the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, that agency is continuing to withhold records relating to children who die in state custody by claiming that journalists are not “bona fide” researchers entitled to records under the law. CYFD made the same determination about university researchers who had requested records. When asked, CYFD would not specify who they would consider to be eligible for records that, in other states, are routinely provided to the public.
Local journalists nonetheless continue working to inform their communities, and do so with far fewer resources than their national counterparts. They do this work even as they face threats and intimidation for reporting the news. Journalists in this newsroom have faced legal and physical threats for publishing stories in the public interest.
In the face of growing challenges to journalism, Searchlight New Mexico, The Santa Fe New Mexican and The New Mexican Public Service Journalism Fund are working to swim against the current. This year, we have expanded our coverage, hiring new reporters in Las Cruces, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. With your support, we will expand our commitment to local journalism even further.
Monday, Sept. 28 is World News Day, a global campaign to raise awareness about the role of journalism and the growing pressures the news media faces. More than 1,000 newsrooms, across 108 countries and 17 languages, are working together to participate in World News Day this year, including Searchlight, The Santa Fe New Mexican and The New Mexican Public Service Journalism Fund. It’s a great time to show your support for local journalism. I hope you’ll stand with us to keep the news coming.
