Mar 10, 2019 3 min read

Sunshine is the best disinfectant, especially in journalism, when reporters bring light to the dark corners of government. But there are some ominous clouds on the horizon.

Today marks the beginning of “Sunshine Week” across the country, an annual initiative launched by the American Society of News Editors in 2005 to remind people of the importance of journalism.

While major newspapers such as the New York Times and Washington Post garner most of the national headlines, it’s local journalism that is the backbone of the country. Recently, much has been made of so-called “news deserts,” where there are no local newspapers left to cover stories about municipal government, school boards or police matters.

In fact, a study by the University of North Carolina released in October revealed that more than 1,300 communities have “totally lost” news coverage over the past 15 years, a jaw-dropping number that shocked many in the industry. About 1,800 metro and community newspapers – 20 percent of the industry – have gone out of business since 2004, the report found. Hundreds more scaled back coverage to the point they have become “ghost newspapers,” the study concluded.

This year, “Sunshine Week” is examining how the loss of local news coverage is impacting democracy. A series of stories will appear each day in newspapers across the country that investigate this troubling trend across American journalism with the dismantling of local coverage. The “Sunshine Week” theme in today’s newspaper is about the “fading light” of local journalism and what it means for holding elected officials accountable.

Readers in this area know what it means to have a local newspaper hold powerful government agencies accountable.

The Herald-Standard in Uniontown doggedly pursued documents through Pennsylvania’s open records law to learn more about how a fly ash dump in LaBelle, Fayette County, could be adversely affecting the health of prison inmates at nearby SCI-Fayette. The state Department of Corrections fought the newspaper’s requests for years, but ultimately lost its battle and was forced to hand over a trove of information to the newspaper.

The Observer-Reporter is currently pursuing documents from California University of Pennsylvania to learn whether there were donations from a company that was chosen to build a parking garage on campus, which later partially collapsed. The university is fighting the O-R in Commonwealth Court to avoid releasing those records.

And that is only scratching the surface to the in-depth coverage that newspapers here and nationally do every day.

Newspapers long have held the “watchdog” role in their communities. But as resources shrink, people will turn to other avenues of information – such as Facebook – whether they are trusted sources of news or not. And while social media outlets have been great assets to connect family and friends and high school classmates, its users and influencers aren’t always trained on the skills to ask tough questions or independent of conflicts to objectively report the news.

Avid readers and subscribers may lament the loss of their local papers, but it’s the public as a whole that truly pays the price. With fewer reporters on the beat, local and school officials can do their public business in the dark.

That should scare all of us. Except, maybe, for those who thrive in darkness.