Anti-journalism feeling felt at local level; journalists need to explain their work, build good faith and find common ground

By Al Cross
Professor and Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

The Rural Blog has reported several times that the anti-journalism sentiment generated by President Trump and his followers is filtering down to local news outlets. Today Columbia Journalism Review takes note of "a number of instances . . . in which local reporters with longstanding community ties were shunned, spurned, harassed, and otherwise treated with disdain by elected officials," suggesting that Trump’s "example is being taken up at the local level."

“Local journalists seem to be vilified now,” American Society of News Editors attorney Kevin Goldberg told CJR's Matthew Kassel. “Whether it’s federal officials outside of D.C. or it’s actually state or local officials, I feel like people are more emboldened to act against journalists.”

Several of Kassel's examples are from Iowa: "Gov. Kim Reynolds snubbed the Gazette, a daily paper in Cedar Rapids, when it requested a meeting, as did a number of Iowa House incumbents. Likewise, [U.S.] Rep. Steve King, along with his fellow Republican incumbents, refused to meet with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register during the midterms. King also barred the Register from his election night event."

Doug Burns interviewed then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2007.

Campaign events, including Trump rallies, seem to be the most problematic. Our friend Doug Burns, co-owner of the Carroll Times Herald, told Kassel he went to a rally in Council Bluffs to cover an ethanol announcement by Trump and "was treated as if he had ulterior motives. Along with other reporters, he was locked in a media pen at the back of the arena and forbidden to speak to members of the crowd, many of whom he knew," Kassel writes. "Burns couldn’t use the bathroom without an invigilator from Trump’s team following along to make sure he didn’t interact with anyone." Burns told Kassel, “It was like visiting hours in a prison.”

In Connecticut, the campaign of a failed Republican gubernatorial candidate "tried to ban a Hearst reporter and a photographer from covering a GOP election-night event," Kassel reports, quoting Matt DeRienzo, vice president of news and digital content at Hearst Connecticut: “Everyone should be worried about the tactic of saying There’s no objective truth and we reject the role of the press. Everyone should be afraid of that filtering down to the local level, and I think you’re starting to see signs of it.”

Democrats are using the same tactics, and Kassel gives several examples, including Oregonian reporter Hillary Borrud's difficulty getting access to Gov. Kate Brown's campaign, and then-state Sen. Daphne Campbell's calls to Miami-area police when reporters twice tried to question her.

Burns, 49, "worries about his younger colleagues, who, he says, have never experienced the sense of collegiality that once existed, in one way or another, between journalists and elected officials." He told Kassel, “For a lot of younger people, this is all they’ve known.”

All the examples Kassel cites involve federal or state officials, not local ones, who deal with journalists on a more personal basis. But those officials are gradually being replaced by those who have entered public life in a more partisan, polarized atmosphere. It's important for journalists at all levels to help officials understand the work of journalism, build a feeling of good faith, and agree on at least one thing: journalists and public officials are public servants who need to keep the larger public interest at top of mind.