Rural residents may become 'unintended victims' of end to PBS, NPR funding

Many smaller stations don't have enough private
funders to survive without federal support. (Adobe photo)

Update: In a narrow vote largely split along party lines, the House voted 214 to 212 to rescind $1.1 billion "allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes nearly all of the funds to local television and radio stations, for the next two fiscal years," report Deirdre Walsh and David Folkenflikof NPR. "Two key Republican lawmakers switched their votes from 'no' to 'yes' to push it over the finish line."

Federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding remains on the chopping block as U.S. lawmakers continue wrangling the pros and cons of yanking back the $535 million already approved by Congress for 2026 and 2027. In late May, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for an end to any future support for NPR and PBS because he believes "taxpayer funding of NPR’s and PBS’s biased content is a waste."

As the political battle continues, smaller stations are worried they will become the "unintended victims of national culture wars," reports Andrew Mercein for Columbia Journalism Review. The cuts would likely end radio stations in places such as Wrangell, Alaska, where many of the borough's 2,127 residents rely on its local radio station, KSTK, “for emergency information, rescue coordination, updates from local officials, and advice on accessing essential services."

KSTK’s general manager, Cindy Sweat, told Mercein, "If CPB funding disappears, I don’t know how we’d survive."

Should lawmakers approve the cuts, they are "unlikely to do the most damage to the networks they are aimed at," Mercein explains. "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is legally required to distribute nearly 70% of government funds directly to local stations, and each station retains full editorial control. …Local stations rely on the federal government for as much as 50% of their annual budgets."

Some lawmakers are pushing against the cuts. Earlier this week, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who co-chair the Public Broadcasting Caucus, issued "a joint statement saying, 'Rescinding this funding would also isolate rural communities, jeopardizing their access to vital resources they depend on. [While public broadcasting] represents less than 0.01% of the federal budget, its impact reaches every congressional district,'" reports Aris Folley of The Hill.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) also voiced his support for CPB. He told Folley, "You go to rural America, public television is how you get emergency broadcasting and all that kind of stuff. I look at Idaho Public Television, they’re a great organization, and we don’t see the politics that some states do in them." Folley reports, "Simpson added that he still intended to support the package if it comes to the floor."

Amodei and Goldman pointed out that rural broadcasting stations face more private fundraising challenges than stations in more populated areas. Folley reports, "Amodei and Goldman said in the new statement that “of the 544 radio and television stations that receive federal funding, 245 serve rural communities and collectively support more than 5,950 local jobs.'”

Some public media advocates and stations believe the House will vote on the "claw back bill" that includes cutting PBS and NPR funding as early as tomorrow. 

Some Republican legislators push for NPR and PBS cuts over alleged bias. Rural stations depend on public funds.

PBS stations in rural areas are more dependent on
tax payer money. (PBS graphic)

During recent hearings with heads of PBS and NPR, Republican legislators zeroed in on alleged reporting bias to justify "dismantling and defunding the nation’s public broadcasting system," reports David Bauder of The Associated Press. "The nation’s public broadcasting system is facing perhaps the biggest threat to its existence since it was established in 1967. . . . The broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

While some Republicans have routinely "grumbled that PBS and NPR news programming leans left, their efforts to cut or eliminate funding usually fade because legislators want to protect their local stations — 336 of them for PBS alone, with those in rural areas most heavily dependent on taxpayer money," Bauder explains. The fact that President Donald Trump said he would 'love to' see both services cut off from federal dollars may keep GOP defunding efforts alive.

The hearings allowed "a succession of GOP lawmakers to complain bitterly about alleged bias, particularly from NPR stations, making clear it was not an issue that was going away quietly," Bauder writes. "Democrats characterized the hearing as a distraction from more important issues, like this week’s revelation that a journalist from the Atlantic was included in a text chain of Trump administration officials detailing a U.S. military strike in Yemen."

Broadcasting leaders acknowledged some past errors in judgment. "NPR President Katherine Maher said the radio network was wrong to dismiss what was on Hunter Biden’s laptop as a non-story," Bauder adds. "Although saying she is not responsible for editorial content, Maher detailed efforts by NPR to ensure a variety of political viewpoints are represented."

PBS chief executive Paula Kerger "emphasized the service that PBS provides to local communities, particularly with its educational programming for children, and said she is worried for the future of its smaller stations," Bauder reports. Kerger told the committee, “This is an existential moment for them.”

Quick hits: Deceptive ice cream; no cells in some classrooms; most Americans like these four TV shows; rural road safety

Life Raft Treats ‘Not Fried Chicken’ Ice Cream Bucket
is a fan favorite. (Life Raft Treats photo)

It may look like a fried chicken leg, but it's mail-order ice cream. "We tested the most intriguing of the current wave of mail-order ice cream sandwiches and sandwich-like treats," reports Nicole Taylor of The Wall Street Journal. "Small producers around the country have the technology (and the dry ice) to ship nationally, right to your front door." Read all the Journal's picks here.

If there's one thing many teachers would like removed from students' grip, it's cell phones. "More than 70 percent of high school teachers say student phone distraction is a 'major problem,'" reports Natasha Singer of The New York Times. "That’s why states are mounting a bipartisan effort to crack down on rampant student cellphone use. So far this year, at least eight states have passed laws, issued orders or adopted rules to curb phone use among students during school hours."

Fresh July snowfall dotting the tundra and the mountains just outside the Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska (Adobe Stock photo)

Looking to take in U.S. national parks, but not willing or able to handle all the people? Don't worry, there are still places to explore. "These more remote U.S. parks, from Alaska to American Samoa, are kept well away from the bustling crowds," reports National Geographic. "The Gates of the Arctic National Park, in Alaska, is one of the marvels of the U.S. national park system. This and other parks lie on roads less traveled, and take some extra incentive to visit." Find National Geographic's five hidden gem picks here.

Part of getting prepped for football season means tending to the football field's soil, which can be dangerous to athletes if it's too hard. To test soil "toughness," professionals use a score from the Clegg Impact Soil tester, explains Rebecca Schweitzer-Benner of Lancaster Farming. "The maximum firmness score allowed for NFL fields is 85. . . . Field maintenance can involve adjusting pH, fertility and soil structure. Professional fields require more detailed management than high school fields do, and often more fertilizer, frequent aeration and irrigation. Also, lots of mowing."

All that's left of this show's victims
are their bones. (Fox TV photo)

New research reveals that Americans from all political walks of life share an affinity for watching five TV shows, writes Johanna Blakley for The Conversation. Those shows include “America’s Funniest Home Videos, Bones, Criminal Minds, MythBusters and Pawn Stars. . . . Four of these shows were well-liked, but Pawn Stars was actually one of the least-liked shows in our sample of 50. . . . It had the dubious distinction of being the most hate-watched show in America." To read more about American blue, red and purple TV viewing habits, click here.

Now that back-to-school season is in full swing, it's a good time to remind high school drivers of the best ways to stay safe on rural roads, reports Lisa Foust Prater of Successful Farming:

• Always wear seat belts and insist that passengers do, as well.
• Drive cautiously and within the speed limit.
• Be patient when driving behind a large or slow-moving vehicle; be aware you may not be able to see oncoming traffic.
• Pass only when the road is clear.
• Ride with your children from time to time and continue to teach them even after they have a driver’s license.
• Never let anyone ride in the bed of a pickup

Thieves took most print copies of rural weekly with story on alleged rape at police chief's home; increased story's reach

UPDATE, Jan. 20: Mike Wiggins tells the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, "The thief returned all of the stolen newspapers to our office Thursday night, confessed to the crime and was cited for petty theft this morning." The Plaindealer reports that it is not disclosing the thief's relationship to the sexual-assault case, and "The theft was not connected in any way to the three defendants in the case, their families or the Ouray Police Department."

Front page of the latest Ouray County Plaindealer

By Corey Hutchins
Inside the News in Colorado

This week, a front-page story appeared in the small and mighty Ouray County Plaindealer about a 17-year-old girl’s allegations of being raped by teenagers at the home of a police chief.

What happened next? Papers started disappearing from newspaper boxes around the county, said the paper’s owners, Erin McIntyre and Mike Wiggins.

Here’s more from a note to readers in an email Thursday: "All of our newspaper racks in Ouray and all but one rack in Ridgway were hit by a thief who stole all the newspapers. From what we know so far, it seems this person put in four quarters and took all the papers at these racks. It’s pretty clear that someone didn’t want the community to read the news this week. … Whoever did this does not understand that stealing newspapers doesn’t stop a story. We’re not going to stop doing our job, which is to shine light on important issues in our community and keep you informed. This person is not going to shut down the freedom of the press by stealing a few hundred newspapers. Our community won’t stand for it and we won’t, either."

McIntyre also said the young newspaper publishers were working with a printing plant in Montrose to get another press run published on Thursday. “I'll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions on which story they didn’t want you to read,” she wrote. Online, a backlash was surging.

When news of the alleged newspaper thefts hit social media Thursday afternoon, Colorado journalists began sharing a link to the online version of the rape allegations story, including an editor at the Colorado Sun, Denver Post staffers, prominent Denver TV anchor Kyle Clark, and others. (The Plaindealer made the story free to read on its website; other stories are not.) The Post ran details of the rape allegations, naming two suspects; the story led with news of the stolen papers.

Ouray County (Wikipedia map)

Clark also included a broadcast segment about it on his "Next" show Thursday evening, indicating the sexual assault story was the news someone was trying to suppress. “We have a link to the article at the Next section of 9News.com,” Clark told his audience Thursday evening. “I recommend you read it if for no other reason [than] that because somebody doesn’t want you to see it.”

If that was the case, the pilfered periodicals produced a classic Streisand effect. The online version prominently displayed mugshots of the three young men arrested for suspected sexual assault, including the Ouray police chief’s stepson; the front-page print story did not.

McIntyre said Friday she hadn’t looked at how much traffic the online story generated, but she said more than $2,000 in donations had flowed in to the newsroom since they publicized the thefts. “People are angry this happened,” she said in a text message Friday morning. “Law enforcement is going to catch this person and we plan on pressing charges.” (She pointed to a 2022 state statute that makes the act of interfering with the lawful distribution of newspapers a finable offense.)

“If you hoped to silence or intimidate us,” Plaindealer co-owner Wiggins said, “you failed miserably.”

Ken Burns says his 'American Buffalo,' premiering Monday on PBS, is mainly a tragedy but one that offers hope

Ken Burns (Los Angeles Times photo by Mark Sommerfield) and his subject (photo by Craig Mellieu via L.A. Times)

“The American Buffalo,” a two-part, four-hour documentary by Ken Burns, premieres Monday on PBS. Burns says the story is “mostly a tragedy . . . about disconnecting a whole group of people from an animal that they felt in kinship with over thousands of years. And it’s the story of another group of people who see themselves as superior, as the dominant species with permission to do anything they want to do” and almost exerminate a species that numbered in the tens of millions.

But it is also a story that offers hope. After what Burns calls “the largest killing of wildlife in the history of the world,” some who took part in the killing helped preseve the species, Michael Ordoña reports for the Los Angeles Times. He says the documentary “contains inspiring accounts of oneness with nature, chilling stories of sadism and bloodshed in a mad rush for profit (and worse motives) — and a message of hope rooted in the potential for transformation within human beings.”

Burns told Ordoña that for 30 years he wanted "to do a biography of an animal, to complement or contrast with all the other specific biographies or big-topic stuff that we’ve done. We’d intersected with that story in 'The West' in the mid-’90s, again in the late ’90s with 'Lewis and Clark,' and then in the aughts with 'The National Parks.' I’m glad that we waited, because it gave us time. Scholarship improved. It also gave us the possibility to develop a narrative that wasn’t just going to pay lip service to other points of view in some paternalistic or even patronizing way, like allowing other points of view, but seeding the film with them. . . . It allowed us to tell a much more complicated, a much more nuanced story and one that is not really complete. I think by the time we finished it, we realized our two parts were the first two acts of a three-act play. The third act is, 'What are we going to do now?' Yes, the buffalo is saved. So our early ideas that this was a parable of de-extinction are true, but it’s so much more than that. Will they just be standing fenced in, in corrals or feedlots or whatever, sustainable, not going to go extinct, but can they roam wild and free the way they used to?"

Rural commentators on PBS, from right and left, agree Haley had strongest peformance in Republican debate

Gary Abernathy and Sarah Smarsh (PBS image)

The commentary section of "PBS NewsHour" Friday night was all rural, as former southern Ohio editor Gary Abernathy and Kansas author and freelance journalist Sarah Smarsh filled in for their conservative and liberal counterparts, respectively. They agreed on most things, including a belief that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley did best in the first presidential debate, among eight Republicans,

After a clip of Haley telling Mike Pence that a federal abortion ban won't fly because of the Senate, Abernathy said, "Republicans have overstepped on abortion. I think the Supreme Court was right to send it bach to the states. Nikki Haley was right . . . I felt she was the strongest in that debate."

Smarsh agreed. Noting last year's Kansas referendum in favor of abortion rights, she said Democrats are "reclaiming the notion of freedom or liberty and applying that to bodily automony. . . . The post-Roe landscape seems to have affected voter behavior in ways pre-Roe models can't necessarily predict."

Butg that hasn't changed how GOP candidates approach the issue in their race, Abernathy said: "You can't be too pro-life for the Republican electorate."

When host Geoff Bennett played Ohio biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy's declaration that "The climate-change agenda is a hoax" and said "Climate change is settled science," Abernathy said, "It's not settled among Republicans, Geoff. . . . Ramaswamy was playing right to that base."

Asked about the Atlanta booking of former president Donald Trump. Smarsh said, "Millions of Americans are aghast that this person facing all these indictments and criminal charges is still the eminent front-runner." Abernathy, describing the widely circulated mug shot, said "That's a portrait Trump may have commissioned and sat for himself, the way it turned out."

News-media roundup: Wash. papers held out for right buyer; W.Va. public-media chief quits; Ariz. news lobbies merge

Leavenworth and Chelan County,
Washington (Wikipedia map)

The publisher of four weekly papers in north-central Washington kept "them going, barely, until new owners were found to revive them," reports Brier Dudley, free-press editor of The Seattle Times. After declining several offers, Carol Forhan sold the Leavenworth Echo, the Cashmere Valley Record, the Lake Chelan Mirror, the Brewster-based Quad City Herald and the monthly Wenatchee Business Journal to Terry Ward and Amy Yaley. Ward, a former reporter and longtime newspaper manager and publisher, told Dudley, “I think there’s a strong opportunity for a long life ahead of them.” Dudley writes, "That’s refreshing to hear from the new owner of newspapers that barely survived a plunge in business during the pandemic."

TV has challenges too: For the first time, broadcast and cable TV viewers now account for less than half of television usage in the United States "even as the prices of streaming services rise," CNBC reports on Nielsen’s monthly streaming report, The Gauge. "Usage among pay-TV customers fell to 29.6% of TV, while broadcast dropped to a 20% share during the month. Streaming made up nearly 39% of usage in July, the largest share reported since Nielsen’s first time reporting the monthly numbers in The Gauge in June 2021. . . . Year-over-year, pay-TV viewership was down 12.5%, while broadcast was down 5.4%."

West Virginia Public Broadcasting's executive director has quit after a year on the job, "the latest sign of upheaval at a news outlet recently shaken by a reporter’s allegation that she was fired for writing an unfavorable story about a division of the state health department," reports John Raby of The Associated Press. "Butch Antolini, former communications director for Gov. Jim Justice," gave no reason for his resiugnation in a letter to WVPB's board. Eddie Isom, chief operating officer and director of programming, was named interim director.

Arizona news-media trade groups merge: Following the lead of some other states, the Arizona Broadcasters Association and the Arizona Newspapers Association are merging to create the Arizona Media Association. I wish they had followed the examples of Ohio and Pennsylvania and named it the News Media Association, since the public increasingly has difficulty distinguishing among news media, social media and other forms of digital media. --Al Cross, director emeritus, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

'Radically Rural' N.H. summit including journalism sessions announces panels and new, affordable pricing scheme

Radically Rural, the two-day national summit that features sessions on community journalism, is offering a big program and a new pricing scheme that allows journalists to determine their admission price, based on their ability to afford attendance, for as little as no charge up to the full price of $175. There are a limited number of free tickets to the event Sept. 27-28 in Keene, N.H.

With a theme of “How did they do that?” two journalism sessions will focus on news organizations that have built sustainability in various ways, including philanthropy, custom publishing, digital readership and membership. A third will look at some great journalism produced by rural newsrooms.

Terrence Williams

“We want to make this is as affordable as possible for journalists to attend, particularly those stressed by the challenging revenue markets facing their organizations and the cost of travel,” said organizer Terrence L. Williams, senior adviser for audience and community development for The Keene Sentinel. The locally owned daily newspaper partners with the local Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship for Radically Rural, which features solutions-based sessions for small communities on seven tracks: community journalism, land use, downtowns, health care, entrepreneurship, arts and culture, and clean energy. Here's the community journalism program:

Sept. 27, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Building sustainability. The demise of local journalism in rural America has received national attention, but many small news organizations are thriving. Panelists: Joey Young, majority owner, Kansas Publishing Ventures; Chris Baker, publisher, Taos News; and Tristan Scott, managing editor, The Flathead Beacon, Kalispell, Mont. Moderator: Terry Williams.

Sept. 27, 12:30-1:30 p.m.: The Fourth Estate. Jeremiah Ariaz, an art professor at Louisiana State University, spent months in Kansas documenting in photography the state of more than 100 rural newspapers. In a moving, nostalgic presentation, he presents the fears and hopes for democracy in communities left without a paper or clinging to what they have. Lunch provided.

Sept. 27, 2-3:30 p.m.: Generating audience revenue. Successful rural news organizations, for-profit and not, are building revenue through fundraising, membership and paid readership. Panelists: Arik Ligeti, director of audience, The Narwhal, online nonprofit, Victoria, B.C.; Christiaan Mader, founder/editor, The Current, Lafayette, La. Moderator: Shay Totten, newsroom success manager, American Press Institute.

Thursday, Sept. 28, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Groundbreaking journalism. A deep dive into how three newsrooms reported powerful stories that have deeply impacted the rural communities they cover. Panelists: Victoria Bouloubasis, journalist and filmmaker, Durham, N.C.; Adam Ganucheau, editor-in-chief, Mississippi Today; Samantha Hogan, investigative reporter, The Maine Monitor. Moderator: Jack Rooney, managing editor, audience development, The Keene Sentinel.

To register to attend or learn more about the programming, go to www.radicallyrural.org

'Try that in a Small Town' a missed opportunity, small-towner writes; W. Post writer calls it 'a fantasy of violent retribution'

Jason Aldean in 'Try That in a Small Town' (YouTube)

Either from their lyrics, curious catchiness or infectious beat, some songs and accompanying videos can bring people together. Jason Aldean's latest song 'Try That in a Small Town" isn't that sort of tune, writes Skylar Baker-Jordan in an opinion piece for The Daily Yonder.

"Jason Aldean broke onto the country scene in 2005 with his top 10 hit 'Hicktown.' Subsequent songs, such as 'Amarillo Sky' (about the plight of farmers) and 'Flyover States' (an ode to the heartland) cemented his reputation as a preeminent troubadour for rural America," Bakr-Jordan writes. "So how did his latest offering, 'Try That in a Small Town,' get it so wrong?"

The song dropped quietly enough in May. The video followed on July 14. "The backlash was swift and severe, with Country Music Television pulling the video mere days after it debuted. . . . Lyrics like 'cuss out a cop, spit in his face/stomp on the flag and light it up, Yeah, ya think you're tough,' Aldean and the songwriters position big cities as crime-ridden hellholes where people 'Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store.' In a small town, though, you can 'see how far ya make it down the road' because 'round here, we take care of our own.'" (The gun angle is explored here.)

Taking care of neighbors is great, but the lyric implies that rural areas are more kind, Baker-Jordan writes: "By pitting urban versus rural, he is not so much extolling the values he grew up with as he is exacerbating the divide already present in our nation. Rather than acknowledging that crime – which happens in rural communities too – is the problem, he blames cities." (Republican presidential candidates are playing the song at events, NBC News reports.)

The video's major location is "a courthouse where an infamous lynching occurred in 1927," but "the production company behind the video denies this was intentional," Baker-Jordan reports. But it "only adds to the problematic nature of the song," which "excludes people of color. . . . Black people live in small towns. Gay people live in small towns. Progressives live in small towns. They have never been the sole purview of conservative white men like Aldean." UPDATE, July 25: Black Lives Matter images in the video have been removed.

Columnist Paul Waldman of The Washington Post calls the video "a fantasy of violent retribution against outsiders — those who would bring the supposed lawlessness of the city to the small town. . . . Were it not for Aldean’s recent political feuds with other artists and the provocation in the video, the song might have simply been cast on the gigantic pile of country songs about small towns. There might be no theme more ubiquitous in the genre: what makes rural life worthwhile, what people in rural areas enjoy and how they live their lives. Some of this music is earnest — even sentimental — about finding pride and meaning in the place where you come from."

That's the sort of song Baker-Jordan wishes Aldean would write. She calls the song "a missed opportunity. . . . Aldean could have produced an anthem that extolled the values of neighborliness and collectivism, which I would agree our nation needs to return to. . . . [Instead] Aldean recorded an anthem dripping with disdain for half the country and filmed a music video at a site of a racist hate crime. . . . I don’t come away from that song feeling like he cares about me. I come away from it feeling like he’s attacking me. And I’m from a small town, too."

CMT drops Aldean's 'Try That in a Small Town', which suggests gun-control supporters want to confiscate firearms

Jason Aldean in Nashville last month (Photo by
Monica Murray, Variety, via Getty Images and Axios)

Country Music Television has stopped airing Jason Aldean's music video for "Try That in a Small Town," which suggests that gun-control supporters want to confiscate firearms, something very few of them advocate. Almost all the media play about it has been about its alleged racism, with hardly any attention to the misleading lyric about guns.

Aldean signs, "Got a gun that my granddad gave me. They say one day they're gonna round up. Well, that s--t might fly in the city, good luck. Try that in a small town. See how far you make it down the road. Around here, we take care of our own. You cross that line, it won't take long for you to find out. I recommend you don't."

A CMT spokesperson confirmed the decision to Adam Tamburin of Axios Nashville, who reports, "Critics say the song strikes a threatening tone while criticizing gun control and protests against police. The video, which was released Friday, splices videos of fires, crimes and burning flags with protest images. Aldean, one of the biggest stars in country music, defended the song on social media Tuesday, saying he's been unfairly accused of releasing 'a pro-lynching song' that was critical of the Black Lives Matter movement." He did not mention the gun-control aspect of the song.

CNN notes that Aldean, an outspoken conservative, "was performing at the Route 91 Music Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in 2017 when a gunman shot repeatedly into the crowd, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in American history."

Aldean's wife Brittany is a "right-wing influencer," Emily Nussbaum reports for The New Yorker in a long story about Nashville and the country-music industry being divided by politics. When singer Maren Morris called Brittany Aldean 'Insurrection Barbie,' Jason Aldean "encouraged a concert audience to boo Morris’s name. Both sides had sold merch off the clash. The Aldeans hawked Barbie shirts reading 'don’t tread on our kids.' Morris fans could buy a shirt that read 'lunatic country-music person' — Tucker Carlson’s nickname for her — and another bearing the slogan 'you have a seat at this table.' She donated the proceeds to LGBTQ charities."

UPDATE, July 25: Black Lives Matter images in the video have been removed. 

North Country Public Radio wins 3 Sigma Delta Chi awards; coverage of wildfires, prisons, Uvalde shooting also win

A disabled mother and daughter in northern New York lived
in this tent and in their car. (North Country Public Radio)

Several of the Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism, announced Saturday night by the Society of Professional Journalists, had rural resonance.

The rural media standout was North Country Public Radio, based in Canton, the seat of St. Lawrence County, New York. Its report on affordable housing, or the lack of it, won the award for public service in radio, and its report on uninspected housing for dairy workers won the award for small-market radio feature reporting. NCPR also won the contest's new award for regional political reporting with its profile of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, whose district coves most of NCPR's coverage area, where it has 33 transmitters.

A prison in rural Illinois was the topic of "How the newest federal prison became one of the deadliest," a two-part story by NPR and The Marshall Project, which advocates criminal-justice reform. The package won the award for radio investigative reporting. The Intercept's five-part report on the effect of global warming and climate change on prisons and inmates won the award for science, environment or climate reporting.

Coverage of two major wildfires won awards. CBS's "60 Minutes" won the award for television investgative reporting for “What Happened at Grizzly Flats,” a California town destroyed by a mismanaged forest ifre; and KUSA-TV of Denver won the award for TV documentaries in large markets for “The story behind the Marshall Fire” near Boulder. 

Also in broadcasting, Virginia Public Media won the award for small-market television feature reporting for its story on black descendants of Thomas Jefferson; Scripps News and the Center for Investigative Reporting won the award for narrative podcast or radio documentary for their six-part "Inside the global fight for white power;" and NPR won the radio feature reporting award for interviews with the mother of one of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook, Conn., school shooting.

Journalism about the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last spring, received two SDX awards. KPRC-TV in Houston won for deadline reporting, and the San Antonio Express-News won the large-market editorial award for its "Standing with Uvalde" series. David Plazas of The Tennessean won the smaller-market award for a collection of editorials. Jake May of the Flint Journal was a double winner for feature photo and small-circulation breaking-news photo.

Other awards of general interest included:

Fact checking: Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post for "The truth about Hunter Biden."

Washington correspondence: Nick Grube of Honolulu Civil Beat, for coverage of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

Editorial cartooning: Michael Ramirez, Las Vegas Review-Journal (small markets), and Gary Markstein, Creators Syndicate.

Magazine writing: Lizzie Presser of ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine for "I was never ready for this," a profile of a teenager from Copperas Cove, Texas, who became the mother of twins after a judge refused to let her get an abortion.

General column writing: Melinda Henneberger of The Sacramento Bee, for five columns.

Fewer than 1/3 of U.S. adults say news media hold public officials accountable; TV, social media are their top sources

Graphs by the Local News Initiative, Medill School, Northwestern University, adapted by The Rural Blog; click to enlarge

Fewer than a third of Americans say local news media meet one of their primary missions, holding public officials accountable, according to a poll for the Medill School at Northwestern University. Here's report on it from Mark Caro of the school's Local News Initiative, edited for concision:

The survey asked 1,015 adults if they agreed or disagreed with the statement “My local news media hold public officials accountable.” Only 3.9% replied “strongly agree” and 26.5% replied “agree,” for a total of 30.4% in agreement. Almost as many disagreed; 11.3% responded “strongly disagree” while 18.8% responded “disagree,” a total of 30.1%. The other 38.7% replied “Neither.”

“There is a lack of trust in institutions in general, so that may be driving some of this,” said Tim Franklin, the Medill School's senior associate dean and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News. “But I think that given how critical this role is to democratic institutions and communities and to the state of our democracy, this is a red flare.”

Stephanie Edgerly, the Medill professor and associate dean of research who oversaw the survey, said the low percentage may also reflect news organizations’ ability—or inability—to inform readers about the work they’re doing. “The public just sees the story that’s written up but does not understand what role local journalists played in covering it,” she said. “In general, journalists have not been great at communicating the behind-the-scenes work of their reporting process to the public.”

Tom Rosenstiel, the University of Maryland’s Eleanor Merrill Visiting Professor on the Future of Journalism, said the poll's finding is a logical domino drop amid the shrinkage of newsrooms nationwide, particularly in smaller markets. Since watchdog reporting is more labor-intensive, he said, it follows that it has declined.

The poll found striking age differences in where people get their local news. 

But Rosenstiel noted that the poll's respondents said the most common way they get local news is through television (32% daily), followed by social media (31% daily), with radio (including podcasts) and newspapers (including print and digital readers) lagging behind at 20% and 15%, respectively. “Having studied local TV news extensively over the years, I can tell you that they don’t cover a lot of local government,” he said. He noted that TV-station consultants consider local government coverage a ratings loser and steer stations away from it.

Only 15% of respondents said they read local newspapers daily, while 29% said they read them weekly, and 39% said they never read them. The survey was conducted for the Medill School by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago from April 27 thgrough May 1.

'After Uvalde: Guns, Grief & Texas Politics' documentary premieres tonight on PBS and streaming platforms

Family members of the victims, and supporters
(Photo by Evan L'Roy of The Texas Tribune)

Just over a year ago, an 18-year-old walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and opened fire with two legally-purchased AR-style weapons, killing 19 children and two adults.

Premiering tonight on PBS and streaming platforms, "After Uvalde: Guns, Grief & Texas Politics" is a profound and powerful look at a grieving community’s efforts to heal and the fight over assault-style rifles in Texas. . . . The documentary will be available to watch in full at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS App starting tonight at 7/6c, and on  Frontlines’s YouTube channel at 10/9c. Check local listings here.

In the "Frontline" documentary with Futuro Investigates and The Texas Tribune, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa probes lingering questions about why this tragedy happened, scrutinizes the police response, examines gun politics in Texas, and explores how some of the Robb Elementary families have navigated their transformed lives in the year since the shooting.

“For the last year, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about these families and about Uvalde,” Hinojosa says in the documentary. “I need to know: What does a place like Uvalde do after a horrific tragedy like this?"

The twice-weekly Uvalde Leader-News published a memorial magazine last week, and Publisher Craig Garnett wrote about it.

ABC News spent a year in Uvalde, Texas, after the school shooting; its report is on the air tonight and Hulu tomorrow

Nicco Quiñones of ABC News films inside the home of Jerry and Veronica Mata. Their daughter Tess, pictured on the wall, was one of 19 students shot and killed in Uvalde, Texas, last May. (Photo by Jenny Wagnon Courts/ABC News via AP)

By David Bauder
Associated Press

After most mass shootings that capture the public’s attention, national news organizations will send reporters for a few days, a week maybe, before moving on. There’s always another community, another tragedy.

ABC News tried something different after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were shot and killed in Uvalde, Texas, last May. The journalists stayed.

For a year, ABC kept a team in Uvalde. The result is a nuanced portrait of what happens over time to a suffering community, as seen in the two-hour documentary, “It Happened Here — A Year in Uvalde,” that airs Friday on ABC and Saturday on Hulu.

“What we discovered has been profoundly moving and inspiring and, we hope, useful,” said ABC News President Kim Godwin.

The story’s richness is in the details: There are the children’s rooms left undisturbed since May 24, 2022, the brush a parent can’t give up because it contains a dead girl’s hair, the survivor made upset by the sound of a block of ice being cracked, and the once-carefree boy who worries a lot. And we see a father who sits at his daughter’s grave each night to talk to her.

There are those who lived but deal every day with survivor’s guilt, and there’s the mother who torments herself for not letting her daughter come home with her after a morning awards assembly.

Uvalde County (Wikipedia map)

ABC’s idea was born out of a desire to bring something new to stories that have taken on a numbing familiarity. “I don’t think that any community should be defined by a tragedy that befalls it,” said Cindy Galli, executive producer of ABC’s investigative unit.

A core team of about a dozen people were assigned to the project, a significant commitment at a time when ABC News, like many other news organizations, is cutting staff. The team, with reporters John Quiñones, Maria Elena Salinas and Mireya Villarreal, rotated in and out depending on other assignments.

The project enabled the journalists to get to know community members and build trust by talking to them without cameras running all the time, she said.

“One of the aspects of being in a small community is that we would run into people at Starbucks or the grocery store,” Galli said. “They knew that we were there and knew that we were there for the long haul.”

That was important to families dealing with their grief, said Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was killed in the attack. Rubio was featured in a segment early in the film, talking about how she uses time spent jogging to reflect upon what happened to her daughter.

“It also helped that it wasn’t different reporters all the time,” Rubio said. “I had two that I worked with. It made it much easier for me to be vulnerable.”

The ABC team filed more than 200 stories during its time in Uvalde, Galli said. Their presence enabled them to break news, such as when Quinones got the first interview with a woman falsely accused of leaving a door open at the school that the killer used for access.

Questions about why it took police more than an hour to enter the affected classrooms kept Uvalde in headlines longer than most mass shootings. ABC’s access deepened the documentary’s narrative retelling of the story, with recordings of a chilling 911 call from a trapped girl pleading for a police response to the gunman.

“I had a pencil,” said Arnie Reyes, a teacher injured that day whose recovery is followed by ABC. “It’s not the same battle.”

The documentary talks about tensions in Uvalde between affected parents and people who supported school administrators and police. That aspect of the story points out a hole in the ABC team’s reporting, although it’s not necessarily their fault: The network had trouble getting people in law enforcement and their supporters to talk.

Lexi’s dad, Felix Rubio, eventually resigned his job as a deputy police officer, explaining that he couldn’t go back to work with people who didn’t rush into the school to try and save the children.

The film also traces the growing activism of Kimberly Rubio and 10-year-old Caitlyne Gonzales in seeking legislation to prevent future school shootings.

John Quiñones (ABC News photo)

“There are vital details, nuances that are missed, when we as reporters parachute in and out” of a story, Quinones said.

The extended assignment meshed with how Quiñones likes to report such stories. He doesn’t see the point of reporters trying to force themselves on people when they don’t want to talk. There were times when he had to step away, like when a family he’d been talking to learned that their child might have survived if police had moved more quickly.

The entire experience was eye-opening for the network, Galli said. Following the Uvalde team’s lead, an ABC digital team is spending time in Buffalo, where 10 people were killed in a mass shooting, also in May 2022.

Quiñones, a Mexican American who grew up in nearby San Antonio, said the extended Uvalde assignment has been the most powerful story he’s ever been involved in.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is the kind of story that will live with me forever,” he said.

News-media roundup: Washington state helps local media; States Newsroom opens its 33rd outlet there . . .

Rob Manch of WFMZ-TV in Allentown, Pa., investigated a coal-mine fire. See below. (WFMZ image via Poynter)

Washington’s legislature has approved $2.4 million over two years to support eight journalists a year, paid $55,000 each, through a fellowship program to be run by Washington State University," Rebuild Local News reports. "Half of the fellows will be graduates of the university. Crucial program details on how the fellowships and participating newsrooms will be chosen, and by whom, are still being drafted. Gov. Jay Inslee also signed a provision eliminating the “the business and operations” tax for newspapers for 10 years. The bill did not benefit digital-only news sites unless they once printed a newspaper."

•

States Newsroom, the largest network of state-based nonprofit news outlets, has launched the Washington State Standard as its 33rd outlet. It has content-sharing agreements with independent newsrooms in 10 additional states. The editor in chief will be Bill Lucia, former executive editor of Route Fifty, an online news journal that covers trends, challenges and emerging issues in states and localities.

•

America's Newspapers, a trade association, has released what it calls "the first national research project dedicated to how readers consume local news and advertising in nearly a decade." Among the findings: Only 22% of readers are 65 or older, and 71% have lived in the community for more than five years. Length of residency has long been a predictor of newspaper readership.

•

Amaris Castillo of The Poynter Institute reports how Rob Manch and Kaylee Lindenmuth of WFMZ-TV in Allentown, Pennsylvania, investigated and reported on one of the state's many underground coal-mine fires. “Towns like Shenandoah and Centralia tend to get forgotten in the state, and in the national discourse,” Manch told Castillo. “And someone’s gotta be their voice, right? Someone’s got to talk about things that affect them.”

•

A recent survey from More in Common and the American Press Institute 

Accentuate the positive: "U.K.-based newsletter The Know has 50,000 subscribers, mainly women, with a 46% open rate and an audience that is growing 10% each month," the American Press Institute reports. "Chief executive Lynn Anderson Clark says her goal with the daily newsletter is to combat news avoidance. Each email starts with a positive news story, followed by coverage of top stories written in a way that won’t leave readers despondent. For example, when covering the February earthquake in Syria and Turkey, the newsletter focused on how the world rallied around to help instead of death tolls. The Know also has a referral rewards program that awards increasingly generous gifts the more a reader invites friends."

•

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' "push to rewrite defamation law and challenge press rights failed to advance beyond a committee vote" in the Florida Legislature, The Washington Post reports. "Opposition came from an unexpected sector: conservative media and lawmakers. When it came to backing what First Amendment experts and journalists called a radical rewriting of press freedom laws, DeSantis-friendly outlets responded with a rare show of resistance from media companies that by and large support the governor’s agenda."

Report for America adds 60 more corps members, at least 16 with rural beats or employers; they will start in July

Sofi Zeman, a graduate of the Missouri
School of Journalism, is going to Uvalde.

The latest class of Report for America corps members includes several with rural beats and employers. Texas got several new reporters; three will be shared by the Longview News-Journal, the Tyler Morning Telegraph and the Marshall News Messenger, and the Uvalde Leader-News, which became known for its coverage of the school shooting there, gets a reporter to cover education, safety and crime. "The People-Sentinel in Barnwell, S.C. ... will open a bureau in a nearby county that no one’s covered in 10 years," Sam Kille of RFA reports. The members will start work in July.

Philanthropically funded, RFA pays "up to half of a corps member’s salary, while its local sustainability team trains newsroom partners to raise the other half from local funders," Kille writes. "Report for America has now matched more than 600 journalists with local newspapers, public radio stations, digital platforms, and television outlets, since its launch in 2017."

The new corps members with rural beats or employers include:

Adrianna Adame, Buffalo's Fire, indigenous democracy in North Dakota

Destini Ambus, Longview News-Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph and Marshall News Messenger, health challenges in Northeast Texas

Caleb W. Barber, The Mitchell Republic/Forum News Service, rural issues and the South Dakota legislature

Carly Berlin, Vermont Public and VT Digger, housing and infrastructure

Henry Brannan, VPM News/WMRA, Harrisonburg, Va., rural health care

Elijah de Castro, The People-Sentinel, Barnwell, S.C., rural communities in the Low Country

Jordan Green, Longview News-Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph and Marshall News Messenger, under-served communities

Lucille Lannigan, Albany Herald, rural communities in southwest Georgia

Andrew M. Lusk, KUCB, Unalaska, regional reporting in the eastern Aleutian Islands

Stephen Marcantel, The Acadiana Advocate, rural communities in southern Louisiana

Nikolai Mather, WHQR, Presque Isle, Maine, the rural "safety net"

Carlos Nogueras, Texas Tribune, Permian Basin communities

Jordan Rusche, Tioga Tribune, rural communities in northwest North Dakota

Daniel Schmidt, Ouray County Plaindealer, Ridgway, Colo., local government accountability

Samuel Shaw, Longview News-Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph and Marshall News Messenger, rural to urban transformation

Isabella Weiss, WVIA Public Media, Pittston, Pa., rural governments

Sofi Zeman, Uvalde Leader-News, education, safety and crime

Current corps members who have rural beats include:

Laura Harbert Allen, 100 Days in Appalachia, religion in Appalachia

Macon Atkinson, Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., presidential primary from a rural perspective

Leo Bertucci, Victoria (Texas) Advocate, the local energy industry

Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile, energy in Wyoming
Riley Board, KDLL, Kenai, effects of state budget policies on rural Alaska communities

Aaron Bonderson, Nebraska Public Media, portraits of Nebraskans, especially rural and of color

Bobby Brier, NJ Spotlight News, mental health issues, especially affecting rural New Jerseyans

Sierra Clark, Traverse City Record-Eagle, indigenous communities in northern Michigan

Monica Cordero Sancho, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, environmental impact of Iowa fertilizer (Mississippi River Basin Project)

Colleen Cronin, ecoRI News, environmental issues in rural areas

Amy Diaz, WFDD, Winston-Salem, education in the Piedmont and mountain North Carolina

Alex Driehaus, Valley News, West Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt., photography

Connor Giffin, Louisville Courier Journal, pesticide runoff and climate change (MRB project)

Sofia Gratas, Georgia Public Broadcasting, rural health care in the "stroke belt"

Theo Greenly, KUCB, Unalaska, regional reporting in the eastern Aleutian Islands

Lucy Grindon, North Country Public Radio, low-income families in rural northern New York

James Hanlon, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, rural eastern Washington

Ellen Heffernan, Mountain State Spotlight, rural and community reporting in West Virginia

Rachel Hellman, Seven Days, Burlington, challenges and opportunities in Vermont's small towns

Isabel Hicks, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the future of agriculture

Teresa Homsi, WCMU Public Radio, environmental concerns in rural Michigan

Jamie Jiang, North State Public Radio, Chico, Calif., wildfires and their aftermath

Chloe Johnson, Minneapolis Star Tribune, land use, water and wildlife (MRB Project)

Laura Kebede, Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis, civil rights cold cases in Tennessee
Emily Kenny, Spectrum News, digital coverage of farming and food production in upstate New York
Tash Kimmell, KCAW, Sitka, Alaska, coverage of Sitka and surrounding communities

Cami Koons, Kansas City PBS, rural issues in Missouri

Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, rural communities in southern Arizona

Lacey Latch, The Arizona Republic, rural life in northern Arizona

Michael Livingston, Interlochen Public Radio/Traverse City Record-Eagle, rural northern Michigan

Jayme Lozano, Texas Tribune, community reporting in the Panhandle and South Plains

Grant McLaughlin, The Commercial Dispatch, Columbus, Miss., economic and workforce issues in rural Mississippi

Sarah Michels, Bowling Green Daily News, community reporting in southern Kentucky

Xcaret Nuñez, KOSU, Oklahoma agriculture and rural issues

Santiago Ochoa, Yakima Herald-Republic, rural health care in Yakima County

Theo Peck-Suzuki, WOUB Public Media, Athens, Ohio, childhood poverty in southeast Ohio

Michael Symonds, WMUK, Kalamazoo, Mich., rural meets metro

Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo, WSKG , Vestal, N.Y., rural health care in New York state

Graycen Wheeler, KOSU, rural Oklahoma water issues