Most people might assume that the greatest threat to the media is President Trump’s relentless assaults on what he falsely calls “fake news.” But Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan argues, “Another crisis is happening more quietly. Some of the most trusted sources of news—local sources, particularly local newspapers—are slipping away, never to return. The cost to democracy is great.” Sullivan is the former public editor at the New York Times and the former editor of the Buffalo News. Her new book is Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy. She documents how nearly half of newsroom staffs have lost their jobs since 2008, the forces working against journalism, the dire implications for democracy, accountability and public participation, and where she finds hope (hint: Vermont’s own vtdigger is one). (July 15, 2020 broadcast)

Margaret Sullivan, media columnist, Washington Post