Opinion: The closing of Washington news bureaus and cuts in reporting jobs hurt democracy and voters

Cameron Joseph

News bureaus in Washington were once hives of intelligence gathering for regional reporting as well as an important way to cover the actions of individual lawmakers for hometown audiences. Freelance reporter Cameron Joseph shares his perspective on last week's Los Angeles Times layoffs and what the loss of D.C. bureaus means for democracy and local news.

Last week, the Times laid off 115 people, more than 20 percent of its staff. "If those cuts went to the bone, in Washington, D.C., it was more like an amputation: nearly half of the bureau’s journalists were let go," Joseph writes. "I’m not just mourning for them. . . . . As the San Francisco Chronicle’s Shira Stein noted, these latest cuts leave just herself, two people from McClatchy, and the five people at the L.A. Times as the only journalists covering D.C. for California-based newspapers. That’s eight print reporters covering the entire federal government — for a state of thirty-nine million people."

But California still has it better than many other states. "Most states don’t have a single reporter covering Washington on the ground anymore," Joseph adds. "This is corrosive to democracy in many ways. . . .The most glaring problem is that lawmakers aren’t held to account. There’s no one to confront congressmen on a daily basis or make sure they’re not breaking the law. Local issues don’t get scrutinized. And with the exception of camera-hungry congressmen and national figures, most lawmakers barely get covered at all."

Most states no longer have reporters covering
Washington, D.C. (Photo by Noelle, Unsplash)

When only the loudest or most aggressive voices are the only ones heard, polarization intensifies. "Without local coverage, the only times most Americans hear about their representatives are from campaign ads or when they’re on national news talking about partisan issues," Joseph explains. "If the only way to gain attention (and raise money) is to talk about national issues on Fox News or MSNBC, why bother taking a political risk to cross the aisle and try to solve problems that actually matter to your district?"

It didn't used to be this way. "In the late 2000s, the New York Daily News, which then had a robust D.C. bureau, led the drumbeat to get healthcare and financial compensation for the first responders and victims of the 9/11 attacks," Joseph writes. "Members of Congress had to be publicly shamed for months by cancer-ridden and dying firemen, EMTs, and police before they eventually created the program. Most of the bill’s opponents were Republicans, but it got passed partly because members from the New York tri-state area from both parties, who fought hard for bipartisan support, got local recognition — and credit — from the Daily News."

"As I write this column, my former colleagues at the New York Daily News are in the midst of a twenty-four-hour walkout to protest the 'constant cuts and apparent commitment to shrinking the paper' of their current corporate overlords. There are barely 50 staff left," Joseph reports. "Since 2005, two-thirds of newspaper journalism roles have been wiped out. . . . A total of 130 local newspapers closed in 2023, according to a study by Northwestern University’s Medill Journalism School — an average of more than ten a month."

"But if the L.A. Times — the largest, most powerful paper not on the Eastern Seaboard — can’t maintain a serious presence in the nation’s capital, who can?"