You should see the sort of bullying and pressure local politicians inflict on the smaller orgs that cover them. They’ll call reporters and say they’re “disappointed” in their “obvious bias,” or escalate it to their publishers to try to get them fired. It often works.
It’s disgusting. They’ll try to angle for more favorable coverage, up to and including unwarranted and unnecessary corrections. They go full bedbug if they don’t get their way. Local news publishers are generally glorified sales people and as such, they’re easy targets.
Sometimes they’ll organize swarms of calls to news desks to complain, or use bots and trolls to create sense of urgency and interest. Publishers are not usually particularly savvy about how this works, so it can be effective. Roger Stone was an early adopter of this method.
And that’s why strengthening local news matters. If they are okay with doing that to us, they’re gonna fuck you over too.
