Page 28 - Delaware Lawyer - Fall 2023

FEATURE | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE
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(and increasingly fragile) local news and information ecosystem in Delaware. An internship program placed young reporters of color into Delaware news- rooms to cover stories that might other- wise go unreported. (Two of them are now full-time staffers, one still working in Delaware.) Another program, the Delaware Journalism Collaborative, gave newsrooms the tools they needed to work together, sharing reporting and resources for common needs.
Now, at the start of 2024, LJI will launch Spotlight Delaware, the first nonprofit, collaborative newsroom in Delaware. Experienced reporters and editors will take on the stories that Del- aware residents have told us they can- not find elsewhere — stories that will shine a light on how government works (or doesn’t), amplify the voices of un- derrepresented communities, advance diversity of thought, and build connec- tion and social fabric among neighbors.
But we will not pay for this new era of journalism with three-line ads for an apartment to rent.
Congress Shall Make No Law
Journalism is the first profession named in the Bill of Rights. In the First Amendment, inscribed on a 50-ton slab of Tennessee pink marble inside the National Constitution Center in Phila- delphia, it says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exer- cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
And thanks to the First Amendment (and that bit about “no law”), our coun- try has few regulations about how the press can (or can’t) operate. There’s no license needed to obtain a press pass or publish a newspaper, no required train- ing before you can walk into Legislative
Hall and start asking people questions. Journalists hold no special status that compels people or politicians to answer their questions. Public documents they can get, yes. Freedom of Information Act laws cover those. But quotes? No. Journalists do not have subpoena pow- er, and anyone — a president, a CEO, a man-on-the-street — can shut down an interview with a simple “no comment.”
In lieu of subpoena powers, journal- ists of the past 100 years have operated on a single currency: Trust. A reporter at a small-town radio station likely at- tended the local high school, recognized her neighbors in the police blotter, and got tips at the grocery store. A reporter on Capitol Hill might talk with a dozen sources before publishing an insider story, and all of them would have to trust that the reporter would honor and respect the ultra-specific D.C. meanings of “on background,” “not for attribu- tion” and “off the record.”
I won’t pretend it was a time without its own problems. Pulitzers have been given to frauds and fabulists, their work exposed after the award. Accusations of “liberal bias” appeared in The Morning News of Wilmington as early as Novem- ber 1969. Seeds of discontent were al- ready stirring.
But in 1972, a Gallup poll found that 72% of Americans still trusted the mass media — newspapers, TV and radio — to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. By 2022, that number had fallen to 34%.
An Ecosystem in Trouble
Strong, independent local journal- ism is closely linked to quality of life. Research shows us that in places where there are fewer working journalists, businesses and citizens pay higher taxes, more crimes go unsolved, fewer people vote, social cohesion is lost, and inequity grows.
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