Media Outlets Must Remain Free and Independent Despite Corporate Pressure

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American media – particularly the newspaper industry – is highly concentrated in the hands of a very few specific corporations. Harvard’s The Future of Media Project lists seven “big owners of dailies,” including three (Gannett, Alden Global Capital, and Lee Enterprises) that Wikipedia describes as controlling over 50% of the U.S.’s daily newspapers. Newsroom employment has fallen by 26% since 2008. Many small towns are now “news deserts” and have no local newspapers. 

Oligarchy isn’t good for journalism. Here are a few recent examples of corporate priorities interfering with news reporting: 

• After 30 years, Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” resigned from the CBS newsmagazine, citing a loss of journalistic independence. His departure comes amidst a period of heightened scrutiny of the program, including a $20 billion lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against CBS and pressure from Paramount Global, the show’s parent company. 
• As part of a settlement for a defamation lawsuit, President Donald Trump secured a $15 million payment from ABC News and a note of regret for its reporting.
• President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order slashing public subsidies to PBS and NPR claiming that they “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”
• In 2024, the Washington Post – personally owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon –  refused to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in 36 years and stated that it will never do so again. 

Political and economic power have always sought to shape what and how newspapers report information. A Google search of ethics courses offered at Journalism departments of prominent universities demonstrates that professional journalistic standards emphasize the importance of reporters combating the biased warping of information: 

Seek truth and report it: Emphasize accuracy, fact-check, and present information in an independent, truthful and comprehensive manner.

The Daily News recently demonstrated what speaking truth to power looks like when it published details from the report to the City Council regarding the scandal surrounding the termination of the Library’s Archive Volunteers program. The News received a copy of the investigator’s full report and published the findings in spite of receiving a cease and desist order from the Mayor’s office telling it not to do so. 

Unfortunately, The News is probably not immune to the demands of its corporate parent. The News is part of Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (CHNI), which owns and operates over 100 local papers in the US. Local newspapers are under constant pressure from its corporate higher-ups. In 2024 alone, 127 newspapers closed. Last year, CNHI sold 10 of its papers and laid off 3% of its workforce. Community papers are an endangered species. 

With the dwindling of local papers, social media has become an enormously important information playing field. But social media also has its limitations. Facebook, for example, tracks your posts, likes, comments, shares, and the links you click. God forbid that the social media oligarchy gets even more fully integrated into the government! In that awful scenario,  straight talk will never have a chance. 

Further, lying partisans have polluted social media in a way that is a complete anathema to anyone with who values facts and diversity of perspectives, let alone self-respecting journalists.

It seems to me that The News would be well-advised to become more of an open system. Talented people abound in Newburyport, and many of them express themselves in letters to the editor and are profiled in the paper’s pages.  I bet many of them would be delighted to create copy for the paper, especially in the online version. 

Using Steve Jobs’ terminology, every institution in America needs to start thinking “different.” The old road is rapidly changing. Independent media outlets are examples of local journalism’s future. Maybe those outlets could teach The News’ old dog some new tricks.

Michael Sales
Newburyport resident

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