Thread by @pamela_vogel

We know that people continue to trust their local news more than other sources to tell them the truth. That's why this year's decimation of the local news landscape is so terrifying (1):

mediamatters.org/blog/2017/12/2…

Right-wing local news giant Sinclair started mandating its stations across the country to air Trump propaganda from a dude who used to work for Trump and was just partying at Trump Hotel like, last week (2) :

mediamatters.org/blog/2017/12/1…

And Trump's FCC, headed by Daily Caller bro Ajit Pai, is going to help Sinclair expand into a bunch more communities and major cities next year (3):

mediamatters.org/research/2017/…

GOP megadonor billionaire Joe Ricketts bought Gothamist and its whole group of hyperlocal digital outlets, threatened newsrooms that voted to unionize, then abruptly just shut down the outlets completely (4):

citylab.com/life/2017/11/g…

Cities on the West Coast, especially in areas with large Spanish-speaking populations, are watching their local outlets shut down or be sold to right-wing corporations and mysterious entities, basically en masse. (5)

Journalism orgs and national outlets are now tracking "local news deserts" because so many newsrooms are shutting down (6):

cjr.org/local_news/ame…

Alt-weeklies -- often the only publications in cities that have the perfect position to speak truth to power -- are rapidly dying out. (7)

politico.com/magazine/story…

Where does this leave communities across the country? Heading into 2018 with fewer trusted sources for the news they need -- either because outlets are gone completely, or because they've been overrun by conservative corporate overlords. (8)

This is an especially devastating trend to write about when we see local alt-weeklies taking on the same forces that want them gone, like this piece from the Rochester City Newspaper on Sinclair (9):

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It's also devastating in a year where local reporting has added humanity to stories about the opioid crisis, numerous mass shootings, hurricanes, and wildfires, and broken stories on harassers in state houses across the country. We're lucky to have local news. (10/end)