Reporters suffer hard times, too; sharing them with readers can make connections through our common humanity

Many reporters have experienced unemployment
and homelessness. (Photo from PovertyUSA)

For journalistic integrity, reporters train to suppress their personal views when addressing a topic. But in uncertain times, many reporters have lived their own versions of trauma, such as homelessness or addiction, and they have shared their experiences with their audiences as part of an unfolding story of shared humanity, reports Bob Sillick of Editor & Publisher. "Because of the severe contraction of the news industry and the uncertainty of working as a freelancer, some journalists have experienced poverty and food insecurity. Becoming part of the story is often critical to their articles being published. The financial and distribution support of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project is helping those journalists recover from the trauma of being without a job and sometimes homeless."

Alissa Quart, executive director of EHRP, told Sillick, "For some of our pieces, the journalists report about hard times they've experienced. Many accomplished journalists have had to receive food stamps and unemployment or have been homeless." Sillick reports, "Lori Yearwood is one of those journalists who have lived through crises. She was an enterprise reporter with The Miami Herald for seven years. . . A series of traumatic circumstances caused her to become unhoused for two years. After she found a place to live, she started to freelance for EHRP . . . becoming a team member and reclaiming her position as a full-time reporter again." Yearwood told Sillick, "Instead of writing only from the perspective of the victim, who is often portrayed as being solely disempowered, I emphasize the more comprehensive story about the coping mechanisms and the resilience that it takes to negotiate these horrendous circumstances in which people find themselves."

Anne Elizabeth Moore is another EHRP-supported journalist who, after years of professional writing, had an extreme health crisis. She told Sillick, "I experienced a quite severe and financially devastating illness. I applied for an award from an organization that was giving free houses to low-income writers in a permanent residency program." Moore used her experience to grapple with her situation. "What's tricky writing about poverty is so much of our culture doesn't allow for honesty about economic security. You must pay very close attention to identifying those who are struggling financially. Have a conversation with people experiencing poverty, but not in a judgmental way."

Sillick recommends adding humanity to any reporter's quiver of writing tools. He writes: "Reducing poverty and food insecurity to numbers can cause everyone to lose sight of the human stories and the circumstances those people must endure." Still, Sillick offers some "baseline" numbers:

• In primary families with children younger than 6, 16.1% were in poverty, and 15% in those with children younger than 18.
• According to the Agriculture Department, 10.2% of all U.S. households were defined as "food insecure" in 2021. Approximately four percent had very low food security. That number rose to 6.2% in those families with children.
• Food insecurity in Black and Hispanic households was greater than for all households, or 19.8% and 16.2%, respectively.

Oregon editor wins weekly editors' top writing award; other winners' topics include secrecy, guns, books, Covid, racism

Steve Bagwell

Steve Bagwell, editorial-page editor of The News-Register in McMinnville, Oregon, won the 2023 Golden Quill Award for editorial writing from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, which held its annual conference at the University of Nevada, Reno, last week.

Bagwell's editorial hoisted Yamhill County Commissioner Lindsay Berschauer by her own petard: words she used to get elected in 2020, promising to make “helping working families” and “protecting working-class families” her top priorities. She and her mentor on the three-member commission, Mary Starrett, refused to accept $68,644 from the state for substance-abuse prevention, rural health care and vaccinations, objecting to a standard clause that "commits Oregon counties to supporting life- and health-saving vaccinations, most of which target dangerous diseases like polio and diphtheria," Bagwell wrote. "The counties are left to decide for themselves how deeply that commitment needs to run."

Immunization services "would seem to most benefit working-class families from rural areas where private health services may not be as affordable and accessible," Bagwell wrote. "But Berschauer and Starrett have displayed almost cult-like devotion to the unorthodox beliefs of the far-right fringe, leading them to repeatedly honor personal ideological purity over the broader interests of ordinary citizens. . . . We take vehement exception to their repeated efforts to impose their alarmist screeds on the rest of us, particularly when those views lack any vestige of factual or scientific grounding. We find it even more objectionable when they prove willing to incur materially harmful collateral damage on their self-proclaimed rural working-class constituency in the process, by thwarting aid having nothing to do with immunization against communicable disease.

To close the editorial, Bagwell quoted a post-election statement from Bershauer: “Too often, those in government operate in a bubble. They fail to understand the impact of their decisions on working families, and that erodes taxpayer trust.” He concluded, “Well, we certainly have to agree with her there. We couldn’t have said it better.”

Bagwell headed the "Golden Dozen" of editorial awards from ISWNE. Two of the 11 others won for editorials about government secrecy. Outgoing ISWNE President Gordon Cameron, group managing editor of the Ancaster News in Hamilton, Ontario, won for an editorial lampooning a local school board for keepign secret why it had sanctioned a trustee for the thid time in the current term; and Bill Schanen III of the Ozaukee Press in Port Washington, Wis., for an editorial taking the city council to task for keeping secret the identity of a developer who was making a controversial proposal.

Other winners in the Golden Dozen and their topics, in alphabetical order, were:

• Tamara Botting of The Sachem in Hamilton, Ontario, who held the local health department accountable with a deeply reported column about how and why it had given her the wrong information about self-isolation after she was exposed to a person with Covid: "People could have been putting off getting tested ... because of misinformation."
• Melissa Hale-Spencer of The Altamont Enterprise in New York, for a long piece about the history of racism in local schools, prompted by the latest incident, ending with "an appeal toward healing. This is empathetic local journalism at its best," wrote the judge, KUNR Manager Brian Duggan, former executive editor of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
• Molly McRoberts of the Potter County News in Gettysburg, S.D., for a short editorial about the Texas school shooting, with this line: "There’s talk after these shootings happen, but rarely change. Some say it’s a mental-health issue. Others say it’s a gun-accessibility issue. It looks like there’s a chance it could be both. And again, it does seem like there could be some discussion."
• Leonard Sparks of The Highland Current in Cold Spring, New York, for a piece titled "The Covid shrug," reflecting on how the pandemic had changed him, his neighbors and their attitudes, and how it had entered a new phase with vaccines that prevent hospitalization for the disease.
• Lisha Van Nieuwenhove of The Uxbridge Cosmos in Ontario, for an editorial titled "Share the freakin' road," about the need to be patient with farming equipment at harvest time, sparked by an accident in front of her husband's family farm.
• Alan Wartes of the Gunnison Country Times in Colorado, for an editorial about citizen's plea to move a sexually themed book from the young-adult section of the libary to the adult section, and the reaction. "Book banning is a bad idea. Period," he wrote. "But so is attacking the motives and character of someone who simply sees an issue differently than you do with harsh and unfounded rhetoric."
• Peter Weinschenk of The Record-Review in Abbotsford, Wis., for an editorial driving home the findings of the newspaper's investigation of the Marathon County court system, which found that the courts are overwhelmed by poor people largely arrested by Wausau police "and without enough public defenders to represent them. . . . Let us drive on slushy, potholed roads. Let us check out ragged, old books from the library. Let our park buildings go unpainted. Let zoning requests gather dust. But don’t make us live without justice. That is the bedrock of our civilization and should be our first priority."
• Brian Wilson, news editor of The Star News in Medford, Wis., for a column urging readers to look past the sensational murder of a 10-year-old girl and think about the need for mental-health services that may have prevented it.
• Geoffrey Woehlk, news editor of The Maryville Forum in Missouri, for a column admonishing local citizens who harshly criticize public officials at meetings: "Why do school board members even want to be school board members? Who would want to be a superintendent? Or a tourism committee member? Or a city manager? Or a teacher? Why subject yourself to the abuse?"

Feds announce $42.5 billion in broadband grants to states

President Biden "announced Monday how nearly $42.5 billion in Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment funds will be divided among states and territories, marking the federal government’s single-biggest investment in high-speed internet access," Lindsay McKenzie of StateScoop reports. "The BEAD allocations have been a long time coming, with states waiting for months to learn exactly how much funding they will receive from the $42.45 billion program."

White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients set the stage in a conference call with reporters last week, comparing the funding to the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, which he said “helped transform rural America, and importantly demonstrated that government can get things down for people.” Internet access is now a “must-have,” much as electricity was nine decades ago.

The funding to each state was determined by the Federal Communications Commission's broadband availability maps, the accuracy of which "has been called into question, but senior administration officials said Friday that these maps have been instrumental in determining where high-speed internet access is available in the U.S. and where it is not," McKenzie reports.

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Weekly editors give Minnesota's Reed Anfinson top award; Oregon's Bagwell has top editorial; 11 other writers honored

Reed Anfinson

Reed Anfinson, a longtime leader in rural journalism and community newspapers, won the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors' top prize, the Eugene Cervi Award, at the group's annual conference in Reno, Nevada, Saturday night.

Steve Bagwell of The News-Register in McMinnville, Oregon, won ISWNE's Golden Quill for editorial writing; he and 11 other weekly editors were in the group's Golden Dozen for editorials. Those are detailed on The Rural Blog tomorrow.

The Cervi Award, named for the crusading editor of the old Rocky Mountain Journal, recognizes an editor who consistently acts with the conviction that “good journalism begets good government,” with consistently aggressive reporting of local government, and has had a career of outstanding public service through community journalism that adhered to the highest standards of the craft, with the deep reverence for the English language that was the hallmark of Cervi’s writing.

Anfinson is co-owner of the Swift County Monitor-News in Benson, Minn., The Stevens County Times in Morris, Minn.; and the Grant County Herald in Elbow Lake, Minn., and partner in a printing plant. After graduation from the University of Minnesota, he worked for the Minnesota House and a congressional campaign, returning to Benson as Monitor-News editor in 1978. In 1996, he bought his brother's half-interest and became sole owner. He and his wife, Shelly, purchased the Grant County Herald in 2014 and the Stevens County Times in 2019. He  served as president of the Minnesota Newspaper Association and the National Newspaper Association, the main lobby for rural newspapers, and is again on the NNA board. He won NNA's 2019 James O. Amos Award for a career of distinguished service and leadership to the community press and the newspaper’s community, the 2003 Al McIntosh Distinguished Service to Journalism Award, MPA's highest honor; and First Amendment awards from the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information and St. Cloud State University. He was vice president of the old Minnesota News Council and is research chair of the Minnesota Center for Rural Policy and Development, which does research on the challenges of rural Minnesota. He has served on local economic-development groups and continues to cover city, county, school and hospital meetings, as well as laying out pages and writing columns.

Anfinson was nominated by MPA Executive Director Lisa Hills, who wrote, "Reed exemplifies the best in journalism and serves as an inspiration to others. . . . He is recognized as a respected expert and spokesman for community journalism, often appearing on public television or being interviewed by reporters for stories regarding community newspapers [but] his main focus has always been, covering and informing readers about their local government bodies and community."

Former NNA president Robert Williams seconded: "Reed’s valor in standing up to the money and power that controls many small towns proves his commitment to the values so many journalists, like Eugene Cervi, stood for. I know of no other editor who better deserves an award representing the worthwhile goals Mr. Cervi sought to achieve. Our nation would be in far better shape if every community could be so fortunate to have an editor with the wisdom, vision and ideals Reed Anfinson demonstrates through his newspaper every week."

Benson Mayor Jack Evenson wrote that Anfinson "upholds journalistic excellence" and "strives to ensure that this area engages in fact-based, researched debate rather than what is popular or learned through hearsay. . . . The effort he puts into every issue is evidenced through the sheer number of stories and their high quality when compared to other small-town papers."

Anfinson clearly has done a good job of helping local officials understand the role of a community paper. He recalls how longtime city manager Rob Wolfington, now retired, concluded a list of introductions at a City Council meeting, looking across four rows of empty chairs at him and saying, "And the newspaper, representing the people of Benson."

Some in Congress want to limit what federal food benefits can buy; others say the poor need more options, not fewer

Photo by Ian Dooley, Unsplashed

Will Congress limit some Americans' food choices? Possibly. "Some lawmakers want to prevent people from buying soda or junk food with federal benefits, but opponents say Congress shouldn't be policing what Americans eat" in the next Farm Bill, which funds food and nutrition programs, reports Kristina Peterson of The Wall Street Journal.

"The proposed restrictions are among a range of changes that lawmakers are considering for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP—formerly known as food stamps—in an effort to steer the millions of low-income families who use the program toward healthier food choices," Peterson reports. "Supporters of the restrictions say that the government shouldn't be subsidizing the sales of products that can contribute to obesity, disease and higher health costs."

Some Republicans favor restrictions on items like ice cream, soda and candy. "A measure in a House GOP spending bill approved in committee along party lines last week would establish a pilot program allowing a handful of states to restrict some foods or beverages from the SNAP program," Peterson writes. But not everyone agrees that such restrictions are needed. "Many Democrats—and some Republicans—say imposing food restrictions in SNAP would be hard to implement and would put the government in the position of telling Americans what to eat. . . . Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said he thought it was more effective to reward good eating choices by offering financial incentives for buying fruits and vegetables, for example."

Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) agreed that rewarding healthy eating habits was a more proven strategy. Peterson explains, "A recent study of a Department of Agriculture program that provides incentives for SNAP households when buying fruits and vegetables found that its participants consumed about 2.78 cups of produce a day, more than the 2.53 daily cups consumed by the average U.S. adult."

Photo by Emma Shappley, Unsplashed

With over 42 million people receiving federal food aid as of March 2023, "the food industry is lobbying against measures that could suppress sales of their products," Peterson reports. "Anti-hunger advocacy groups and trade associations representing packaged foods, beverages and grocers, among others, urged lawmakers to maintain 'the ability of individuals to choose the groceries they feel are best for their families rather than items decided by the government,' in a letter sent to Agriculture Committee and congressional leaders this month."

Opening up SNAP benefits to more options might also improve nutrition. "Lawmakers said a less controversial approach may be expanding SNAP benefits to some hot and prepared foods," Peterson writes. "Because the food aid program was designed to help people buy food to make or consume at home, rather than eating at a restaurant, SNAP benefits can't be used to buy foods that are hot when sold, such as soup. Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, told Peterson, "They can buy candy bars or Coca-Cola, but they can't buy rotisserie chicken or green beans at the hot food bar—it's ridiculous."

What is milk? Experts have lots of answers, none very clear; infant formula lacks what has evolved over millions of years

Explaining mammalian milk seems impossible.
(Photo by Marcel Christ, Gallery Stock via The Atlantic)

It's much easier to answer the question "Where's the beef?" than "What is milk?"

Milk is a mystery. "No one can really describe what milk is—least of all the people who think most often about it," reports Katherine J. Wu of The Atlantic. "They can describe, mostly, who makes it: mammals (though arguably also some other animals that feed their young secretions from their throat or skin). They can describe, mostly, where it comes from: mammary glands . . . They can even describe, mostly, what milk does: nourish, protect, and exchange chemical signals with infants to support development and growth."

“It’s the defining feature of mammals,” University of Washington anthropologist Melanie Martin told Wu, who begins her story this way: "If an alien life form landed on Earth tomorrow and called up some of the planet’s foremost experts on lactation, it would have a heck of a time figuring out what, exactly, humans and other mammals are feeding their kids," Wu writes. The composition of milk is elusive; from nutritionists and academics Wu got such vague descriptorsas "ecological system," "nutritional instrument, and "the result of the evolutionary selective pressure on a unique feeding strategy." 

 . . . None of these characterizations were bad. But had I been that alien, I would have no idea what these people were talking about."

Mammalian milk is unique, Wu writes:"Millions of years of evolutionary tinkering that have turned it into a diet, and a developmental stimulus, and a conduit for maternal-infant communication, and a passive vaccine. It builds organs, fine-tunes metabolism, and calibrates immunity. . . . Among some primates, it influences infants’ playfulness and may shape their sleep habits and bias them toward certain foods. Some of its ingredients are found nowhere else in nature; others are indigestible. Still, others are alive."

And few things are as adaptive as mammals' milk. "It remodels in the hours, days, weeks, and months after birth; it changes from the beginning of a single stint of feeding to the end," Wu reports. "Human milk—like other primate milk—is on the watery, sugary side. But its concentrations of immunity-promoting ingredients have no comparator. It bustles with defensive cells; it shuttles a stream of antibodies from mother to young, at levels that in some cases outstrip those of other great apes’ milk by a factor of at least 10. . . . The sheer defensive firepower in our species’ milk is probably a glimpse into the challenges in our past, as humans crowded together to plant, fertilize, and harvest mass quantities of food and invited domesticated creatures into our jam-packed homes."

We know all that, but "We don’t actually know that much about milk," such as its normal values in humans, E. A. Quinn, an anthropologist at Washington University, told Wu, who writes, "Milk’s enduring enigmas don’t just pose an academic puzzle. They also present a frustrating target—simultaneously hazy and mobile—for infant formulas that billions of people rely on as a supplement or substitute." Martin told her, "No human recipe can replicate what has evolved" over hundreds of millions of years.

Infant formula does "the nourish part really well. . . . The protect and communicate part is where we start to fall short,” University of Rochester infant-nutrition researcher Bridget Young told Wu, who writes: "Differences in health outcomes for breastfed and formula-fed infants, though they’ve shrunk, do still exist: Milk-raised babies have, on average, fewer digestive troubles and infections; later in life, they might be less likely to develop certain metabolic issues."

Wu concludes, "The biggest hurdles in infant feeding nowadays, after all, are more about access than tech. Many people—some of them already at higher risk of poorer health outcomes later in life—end up halting breastfeeding earlier than they intend or want to because it’s financially, socially, or institutionally unsustainable. Those disparities are especially apparent in places such as the U.S., where health care is privatized and paid parental leave and affordable lactation consultants are scarce, and where breastfeeding rates splinter unequally along the lines of race, education, and socioeconomic status." Katie Hinde of Arizona State University's School of Human Evolution and Social Change told Wu, “Where milk matters the most, breastfeeding tends to be supported the least. If milk is a singular triumph of evolution, a catalyst for and a product of how all mammals came to be, it shouldn’t be relegated to a societal luxury."

Over eight years, 1/4 of unprofitable rural hospitals closed or merged; nearby competition makes them more vulnerable

University of Minnesota photo via Getty Images

Over the past 10 years, rural hospitals have struggled for their financial health; many have closed, leaving residents with fewer health care options, report researchers for a new study from the University of Minnesota. "Between 2010 and 2021, almost 140 rural hospitals closed. Additionally, about one-third of the rural hospitals still operating are unprofitable. Rural hospitals struggle financially for various reasons, including low patient volume, high fixed costs and a greater reliance on public payers than privately insured patients." Some financially strapped rural hospitals have opted to become triage centers, treating emergencies only and sending more severe or specialized needs to larger centers. This option is not open to many medical centers, and the stark reality remains: If rural hospitals struggle to survive or give vital services, rural residents' access to care is threatened, the study shows.

The new study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs, tracked 858 hospitals in rural areas over eight years, "including 325 rural hospitals that were unprofitable beginning in 2010, and found: 77% of unprofitable hospitals continued to operate as usual, while 17% merged and 7% closed. Of the 77% of unprofitable hospitals that continued to operate, about half returned to profitability by 2018. Rural hospitals that were unprofitable yet remained open were found to have relatively strong measures of longer-term financial health, including positive net assets and positive general fund balance that they could draw from to offset their short-term financial losses."

Rural hospitals are less likely to close if they have "no competitor hospitals within 15 miles," the study found: "Only 5% of unprofitable rural hospitals located in isolated areas closed, compared to 11% of hospitals with nearby competitors." Likewise, a struggling rural hospital with close competition was more likely to close or merge with a larger institution: "Among the 192 rural markets studied with hospitals that were unprofitable at the beginning of the study period, 22% lost at least one hospital to either closure or merger."

In some rural areas, antitrust laws may come into play "because mergers and reduced competition can lead to increased market power and higher prices. However, by charging those higher prices, rural hospitals may be able to stay open and continue providing service to area residents," the study brief notes. The study's lead author, Caitlin Carroll, said "The financial viability of our rural hospitals is declining. The fact that almost one-quarter of unprofitable hospitals closed or merged over eight years underscores the need for policymakers to consider how to promote access and limit market power in rural areas."

Uvalde editor-publisher recalls how shooting sealed relationships inside weekly, broke them with schools, police

Uvalde Leader-News Editor-Publisher Craig Garnett speaks to the Oklahoma Press Association.

Last year's shooting of 19 students at Robb Elementary School in Uvande, Texas, tested the relationships that the twice-weekly Uvalde Leader-News had in its newsroom and local authorities. It strengthened the first and broke the second, Editor-Publisher Craig Garnett said at the state press association convention in Oklahoma, his native state, this month.

“Our reporter, Kimberly Rubio, was at her desk that morning in the newsroom. She had two children at Robb, and she began to get a little nervous,” Garnett recalled. Then Rubio learned that her 10-year-old daughter had been killed, Rod Serfoss reports for Oklahoma Publisher.

“Our newsroom consists of four people – three of them women – and Kimberly Rubio had been with us for 10 years,” Garnett said. “She brought her Lexy, who was killed, to our office when she was five days old. The relationship in our newsroom is extremely close. All three women were shaken to the core. They cried for the first two weeks in between writing – and I don’t know how they did it. They would go, then have a bad spell, and then gather themselves and return to their computer – because that is just what you do.”

By the end of May 24, 2022, the day of the shooting, “The school and police agencies that the newspaper had a good relationship with all clammed up,” Garnett said. “A year later we still can’t get answers. We have filed about 10 to 15 requests with the school district and still can’t get any answers. The shooter needed help from the school and didn’t get it. They just expelled him. The school district failed this young man. We now have a completely antagonistic relationship with the school district. They won’t answer our phone calls, and only respond to half of our text messages. They feel like we are out to get them – and we are. They didn’t do their job.”

But Garnett added, “We failed as a newspaper by not looking more closely at the school district. It was easier for them to get rid of kids than to help them.”

Asked how to cover such an event, Garnett replied, “I don’t know.”

County-fair season in U.S. is country-fair season in England

The Economist used this Getty Images photo, which had no caption
but may be from Bath and West, with its story about country fairs. 

It's country-fair season, and not just in the United States. "Britons love a fair," and seemingly more so lately, The Economist reports from across the pond:

"No one is sure exactly how many fairs there are, but at least 400 days of such rural events happen annually. A parliamentary briefing last year suggested that roughly one in 10 Britons attend them each year. It appears their popularity is rising. Events that sell out all their tickets, as happened at the Great Yorkshire Show last year, could become more common."

Why? "Nostalgia is evidently a big draw," the Economist ventures. At "England’s oldest and grandest" fair, Bath and West Show in the southwest county of Somerset, "Bunting flapped, the visitors formed orderly queues, bought cream teas and listened to a military band that played wartime hits. . . . As well as a fiercely competitive livestock parade, it features Morris dancing, sheepvshearing and a vintage fairground. Its pony-chariot races, meanwhile, are second-to-none. Many contestants on a recent afternoon had first given generous custom at the nearby cider tent. They performed vigorously before a large crowd."

But fairs have other raisons d'etre. "Many fairs were founded in the 18th or 19th century to spread knowledge of new farming technology among rural populations. Some of that mission continues. . . . The 600 trade stalls offered at least as much interest as any Morris dancing."

Most Britons are urbanites, so the fairs try to "educate urban visitors, who make up a decent share of those who turn up. Some consumers also come armed with formidable knowledge of food-supply chains—as well as sometimes complicated personal preferences for organic, local, animal-friendly, vegan, fair-trade and environmentally sound products. Laura Williams, of the Royal Welsh Show, notes that visitors these days are 'much more invested in farming and interested in where their food comes from' than in years gone past."

Mountain Valley Pipeline gets permit for water crossings

The pipeline will go to one that serves eastern states. 

"A final permit issued Friday may be enough to get the Mountain Valley Pipeline across the remaining rivers, streams and wetlands that have long blocked the project’s path to completion," reports Laurence Hammack of The Roanoke Times.

The permit came from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "for construction through hundreds of water bodies in Southwest Virginia and West Virginia, as it was required to do by a recently passed federal law that fast tracks the controversial project," Hammack writes, noting the law's main backer, conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, where the pipeline will gather its gas.

The permit covers all the "water resources" the pipeline needs to cross, which are so numerous that an exact count wasn't available Friday. "Mountain Valley has previously said that it has completed more than half of the nearly 1,000 water-body crossings along the pipeline’s 303-mile route," Hammack notes. "But one thing seemed clear Friday: Mountain Valley now has approval to complete a natural gas project that has been delayed for more than four years by permitting complications and legal challenges."

In wire-service transgender stories, Fox replaces 'gender-affirming care' with 'sex change' or 'sex reassignment'

"Fox News’ website is altering articles from The Associated Press and Reuters to replace the phrase 'gender-affirming care' with the terms 'sex change' or 'sex reassignment' — phrases that the AP, trans journalists, and LGBTQ rights advocates deem outdated — and frequently removing or replacing references to 'care' or 'medical care'," Mia Gingerich reports for Media Matters.

"In one of the most recent examples, Fox fabricated a quote from an Oregon state senator," Gingerich reports. "AP and Reuters confirmed that altering their content to change the meaning or accuracy of the reporting violates their rules."

Fox moved from changing headlines to changing story texts with an AP article it reposted April 27, Gingerich reports. "Over the last two months, Fox News has altered at least 18 articles from the AP and one from Reuters on anti-trans legislation that are credited exclusively to the respective outlets. No notes or citations are made clarifying any changes." Her story cites each examples of changes.

Gingerich explains, "Gender-affirming care is a broad term that encompasses an array of essential services for trans and nonbinary people that can include both medical care — such as therapy and medication — as well as nonmedical services, like changing the way you dress or what pronouns you use." She notes conservative information outlets like The Daily Signal "castigated the cable network for its occasional 'use of activist language like "gender affirming care" in stories on its website, as well as the site’s consistent use of female pronouns for biological males.' Last year, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham similarly called on people to stop using the term, claiming it was a 'misleading euphemism'. The medical professionals providing gender-affirming care, and who overwhelmingly support trans youth’s access to care, do not share that sentiment."

Last year AP added a topical guide to its Stylebook, giving guidance "not to use outdated terms, singling out 'sex change' as one to avoid," Gingerich notes. 

News-media roundup: Canada passes tech-news bill; fact-checking levels off; young people forsake news websites . . .

The Parliament of Canada has passed a bill to "require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms," The Associated Press reports. The Senate approved Bill C-18 "amid a standoff between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and Silicon Valley tech giants," AP reports. "Meta confirmed Thursday that it plans to comply with the bill by ending news availability on Facebook and Instagram for its Canadian users, as it had previously suggested. Meta would not offer details about the timeline for that move, but said it will pull local news from its site before the Online News Act takes effect," six months after it is signed by the governor-general, Canada's head of state.

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"Fact-checking’s growth seems to have leveled off," reports the Duke Reporters' Lab.  Mark Stencel, Erica Ryan and Joel Luther counted 417 fact-checking news outlets around the world, down from a peak of 424 in 2022.

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Young people are abandoning news websites in favor of social media and Tik Tok, reports Nic Newman of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The institute's report has "evidence that users of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat tend to pay more attention to celebrities and social media influencers than they do to journalists or media companies when it comes to news topics," Newman writes.

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The Augusta Press, an online news outlet, has won the 2023 Freedom of Information Award from the Georgia Press Association for pressing its case against the Richmond County sheriff, who won't communicate with it because he dislikes its opinion writer.

State supermajorities, at highest level in 40 years, mean one party's agenda moves forward and the other is powerless

North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham changed her party
affiliation to Republican. (Photo by Hannah Schoenbaum, AP)

Supermajorities are once again more common in the states, and their influence can be so powerful that the minority party becomes irrelevant, reports David Lieb of The Associated Press. "In North Carolina, a new supermajority of Republicans enacted abortion restrictions. In Vermont, a new supermajority of Democrats imposed a climate-sensitive home heating law. And in Montana, a GOP supermajority booted a transgender lawmaker from the House floor."

While there is no generally accepted definition of a supermajority, "The term generally is equated with whatever threshold is needed to override a gubernatorial veto," Lieb explains. "In many states, that's a two-thirds majority. In some, that's a three-fifths majority. In six states — Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia — it takes only a simple majority to override a veto. But those states all have Republican majorities around 70% or greater."

"Republicans or Democrats hold majorities so large in 28 states that they could override gubernatorial vetoes without any help from the minority party," with 19 Republican supermajorities and nine Democratic ones, Lieb reports. The total is the most since 1982, according to Saint Louis University political scientist Steven Rogers, an expert on elections and state legislatures.

Simply put, supermajorities have the votes to enact their agenda, and some members join them to gain leverage or make a difference.. "In April, North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham switched from Democrat to Republican to give the GOP another supermajority," Lieb notes. "Six weeks after Cotham's switch, she provided a pivotal vote as the new GOP supermajority overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of legislation banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy." 

Increases in supermajorities stem from two trends, Lieb reports: "Americans have increasingly voted along party lines, picking state lawmakers and even local officials who align with their party choice for president or the top of the ticket, Rogers said. At the same time, politicians in power in many states have gerrymandered voting district boundaries to give their party's candidates an advantage in legislative elections. . . . As parties gain more seats in House and Senate chambers, the political ideology of their middle members often shifts further to the right or left, reducing the need to appeal to moderates and virtually eliminating the need to compromise with the opposing party."

Depending on a voter's political leanings, "Some may be pleased by the sweeping policies that get enacted," Lieb points out. "Others may feel like their priorities are ignored." Carlos Algara, an assistant professor of government and politics at Claremont Graduate University in California, told Lieb: "On behalf of the voters, it might be a good thing, because it helps clarify responsibility. If you are a voter in California, you know explicitly which party owns policy; it's the Democratic Party. . . . So if you don't like the direction of policy in California, you have a very easy choice."

Indiana teachers put students in isolation with little oversight; schools are not audited or held accountable

Elementary school isolation room in Warsaw,
pop. 15,000, in northern Indiana (WFYI)

Teachers in Indiana repeatedly put an 11-year-old boy in forced isolation, despite the child having epilepsy and being on the autism spectrum, reports Lee V. Gaines of WFYI in Indianapolis in the first of two reports. This child isn't alone in his experience. "Students across the state are secluded and restrained thousands of times each year, according to data provided by the Indiana Department of Education. . . . Indiana lawmakers approved legislation a decade ago that was intended to regulate and curb the use of restraint and seclusion in schools. . . . The law states that these interventions should be used rarely and only as a last resort in situations where the safety of students or others is threatened. . . . But a lack of oversight from the Indiana Department of Education means it's unclear whether the law has had its intended effect."

Indiana "defines seclusion as the confinement of a student alone in a room or an area from which they're physically prevented from leaving. Physical restraint is defined as physical contact between a school employee and student that involves the use of a manual hold to restrict freedom of movement of all or part of a student's body," Gaines explains. "The DOE collects district-reported data on the number of incidents of seclusion and restraint in schools. . . . But a WFYI investigation — based on public records, court documents, internal school logs, audio recordings of state-level meetings, and parent interviews — found that some schools do not accurately report incidents of restraint and seclusion to the state."

In addition to haphazard reporting by some schools, the DOE is required to conduct "an annual audit of seclusion and restraint data reported to the agency by school districts, according to a rule that took effect in 2018," Gaines writes. "But the department has no record of an audit ever being done for the previous four school years, according to a spokesperson for the agency, Christina Molinari. . . . Molinari said that the DOE does not have the power to make schools follow these plans." In addition to individual school plans, in 2013, the state established "The Indiana Commission on Seclusion and Restraint, which was tasked with drafting rules and creating a model plan that details how schools should report and use these interventions. . . . Two commission members say the body has lost focus." And once again, "The commission has no enforcement power to ensure districts are accurately reporting incidents and following their restraint and seclusion plans." The end result is "state requirements and no enforcement."

In a partial win for a Chippewa band in Wisconsin, a federal judge orders a section of oil pipeline to close in three years

The Bad River Band's insignia shows the river's watershed
inside the reservation. (Image from Bad River Tribe website)

A federal judge's ruling gave a partial victory to members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, who were suing Canadian oil firm Enbridge "over a stretch of pipeline that crossed over tribal lands," reports Zack Budryk of The Hill. District Judge William Conley "ordered the firm to shut down a section of its pipeline in Wisconsin. . . . The tribe has argued the area of the pipeline is at risk of rupture, while erosion of the banks of the Bad River has left only about 15 feet of land separating the pipeline and the river. . . . Conley agreed with the tribe on the environmental risks of the situation but did not agree a state of emergency warranted an immediate shutdown."

Reservation and pipeline (WNMU map)

Conley, a Barack Obama appointee and native of Rice Lake, 80 miles southwest of the reservation, ordered a "gradual shutdown within three years, and he ordered the energy firm to pay the tribe $5 million in damages for trespassing," Budryk reports. "His ruling expressed concerns that an immediate halt to the pipeline would disrupt energy security in the area and make consumer fuel costs spiral." The judge pointed out Enbridge's delay in building a bypass pipeline, noting that "'Enbridge has now had 10 years since losing its rights of way, including four years of litigating, to move its bypass forward. Considering all the evidence, the court cannot countenance an indefinite delay. . . . Nevertheless, the court will give Enbridge an additional three years to complete a reroute.'"

Enbridge said the ruling was a partial win, but it plans to appeal. "Mike Wiggins, chairman of the Bad River Band, told Budryk that its "victory is not a cause for unqualified celebration . . . We are under no illusion that Enbridge will do the right thing. We expect them to fight this order with all of their corporate might. This is just one step in protecting our people and water."

Farm Bill seems likely to be delayed past Sept. 30 deadline

Passage of a new Farm Bill for the next five years seems likely to be delayed, as chairs of the House and Senate agriculture committees say Congress may need to pass a short-term extension of the current law that expires Sept. 30, reports Leah Douglas of Reuters.

Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow said "It would not surprise me" if a short-term extension will be needed. "We can't give you a date [for a draft], but we're moving as quickly as we can" in the Senate, she said at an event hosted by Bloomberg Government.

Stabenow said the process was delayed by debate over the recent debt-and-spending deal, including changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which the Farm Bill authorizes. Work requirements for the program, once known as food stamps, will now apply to people under 55, not 50.

House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson said the pandemic also delayed the lengthy process, and "said he hopes to have a draft bill ready for markup by the House in September," Douglas reports.

"The American Farm Bureau Federation has about 80 priorities for the new Farm Bill, but the group is focusing on risk management programs," reports Philip Gruber of Lancaster Farming. "These programs — like Dairy Margin Coverage and grain farmers’ Agriculture Risk Coverage — are the most relevant to farmers’ bottom line. For safety-net programs, Farm Bureau has two big goals — increase funding and reset payment thresholds. The rules of some commodity programs are such that farmers won’t get paid unless they have a crop failure," according to Farm Bureau Public Affairs VP Sam Kieffer, speakeing at the PennAgExpo.

Appalachian Journal publishes 50th volume, with looks at Helen Lewis, Rebecca Boone, Harriette Arnow and others

The latest issue of Appalachian Journal (Volume 50, Nos. 1-2) has been published by Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., marking the 50th anniversary of the peer-reviewed journal that began publishing in 1972. The issue includes a memorial for Helen Matthews Lewis, "the grandmother of Appalachian studies," who died last year; the conclusion of an unpublished memoir by Harriette Simpson Arnow, an exploration of Rebecca Boone’s life, and research on a 20th-century artist who "found a muse in the Southern Appalachians," ASU reports.

Patricia D. Beaver reflects on the life of her colleague and friend, Helen Lewis, focusing on the trips they made to Wales, Zimbabwe, and France, among other places, as well as their creative collaborations and Lewis’s passion for social justice and community building and Lewis’s poem “Loose Threads.”

Patricia L. Hudson presents the facts of frontierswoman Rebecca Boone’s life, including provocative biographical details, including rumors of a child conceived while Daniel was away on a hunting expedition. Hudson’s research led to her first historical novel, Traces, reviewed in this issue.

The previous issue of the journal featured the first sections of a four-part autobiographical piece by writer Harriette Simpson Arnow, about her life with chronic illness and depression, caused by a pituitary tumor. The latest issue has the final two parts, detailing Arnow’s recovery from her first brain surgery and the recurrence of symptoms such as pain and vision loss, which prompted a second surgery in 1967.

The journal includes the work of four poets and several book reviewers, including Lana Whited’s essay, “Coming of Age in the Opioid Era,” reviewing Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead, and Erin M. Presley’s review essay of of Horace Kephart: Writings, edited by George Frizzell and Mae Miller Claxton. Kephart brought national attention to the Great Smoky Mountains.

To subscribe to Appalachian Journal or order a copy, go to appjournal.appstate.edu.

Rural Assembly sets online gathering Wednesday, June 28

The Daily Yonder

Rural Assembly Everywhere, the virtual gathering of the Rural Assembly, will feature conversations with rural leaders and allies, including Anderson Clayton, the youngest state political party leader in the nation.

Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic party, is one of several rural leaders and allies scheduled to be part of the free, virtual event from 1 to 3 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 28.

This year’s Everywhere is focused on rural people who are working toward safer, more connected communities. It is the fourth virtual event for the Rural Assembly, which has been hosting gatherings across the country since 2007.

Rural Assembly Everywhere will be broadcast via the Crowdcast platform. Attendees will be able to connect with one another before and during the broadcast through the event chat.

“Everywhere is the virtual analog to an in-person Rural Assembly,” said Rural Assembly Director Whitney Kimball Coe. “Even in a virtual space, we feel like we can create an experience that inspires and strengthens our connections to one another across Zip codes and culture.”

“The theme of ‘safer, more connected rural communities’ gives us an opportunity to explore how people and places are taking care of each other and affirming the dignity of one another–through arts and culture, policy advocacy, organizing and gathering, big and small acts of care. The stories from Everywhere remind us that rural people and places are extra and ordinary and essential to the future of our nation.”

The event will spotlight other rural voices through video stories and conversations:

• Appalachian author and Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House in conversation with his friend the Rt. Rev. Brian Lee Cole, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. House has written seven novels; his most recent, Lark Ascending, won the 2023 Southern Book Prize and the 2023 Nautilus Book Award. In 2022 he won the Duggins Prize, the nation's largest award for an LGBTQ writer.
• Highlander Center’s Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele will talk about the center’s work in the South.
• Sam Schimmel and Jonathan Blair, co-creators of a documentary-media and public-engagement initiative, "American Creed: Citizen Power," a follow-up to the 2018 documentary "American Creed" from Citizen Film – will discuss how they are working to build safer, more connected communities, the barriers they face, and their advice for other young rural community organizers.
• Stories from rural organizations and initiatives, including the Catwalk drag show in Fergus Falls, Minn.; Good Neighbor Missouri, Welcoming America, the Equal Justice Initiative, Main Street America, which helps revitalize older parts of small towns. and StrengthenND, which hekps nonprofits and rural communities in North Dakota.
• Artists Brett Hill, Eliza Blue, Cody & Alex, and Torrey McDowell will share stories and musical performances.

Registration for Everywhere is free. Visit www.ruralassembly.org/everywhere to register.

The Rural Assembly and The Daily Yonder are part of the Center for Rural Strategies.

Weekly editors, publishers feel a need to look after their and counterparts' mental health in the isolation that defines 'rural'

By Al Cross

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

Has there been a more stressful time for community journalists, especially those in rural areas, where the isolation that defines rurality limits access to mental-health care and gives them few trusted peers to rely on for help and support? Rural editors, publishers and reporters have suffered the double whammy of the pandemic amid the impact of the great digital shift, which has robbed them of audience, revenue and colleagues.

Several editors and publishers talked about these existential issues with rural-journalism researchers June 21 at the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors' annual conference in Reno. After Christina Smith of Georgia College and State University and Kyle Miller of the University of South Dakota presented their research on rural journalists' mental health, Smith asked them if they have "confidants" with whom they can discuss the stresses of the job and the problems those stresses can cause. That sparked an interesting conversation.

ISWNE President Gordon Cameron of Hamilton, Ontario, said that after every annual conference, "We leave energized and that’s because, the people in this room, you all get it," through common experiences, some of which can be stressful. He said that has helped him get through "difficult times." Ken Garner of the Maryville Forum in Missouri said “I’ve found my tribe” in ISWNE. He said retired publishers Gary and Helen Sosniecki, longtime ISWNE stalwarts, had helped him, and he would have “no issue” calling anyone in the room at the University of Nevada-Reno for help. He said that is a key to his mental health.

Reed Anfinson

Reed Anfinson, publisher of the Swift County Monitor-News and two other weeklies in rural Minnesota, said he agreed with all that, but “I also feel like we’re glossing over the real impact that a lot of isolated newspaper publishers face in America. We sit there in our offices, for many, many weeks, without hardly interacting with other publishers, and there's too many publishers that don't belong to organizations. So there is a real problem out there with isolation.”

Especially when the concerns are existential. Anfinson said community publishers ask themselves, “Can I sell my newspapers? Will somebody want them? . . . Those things all eat at us, all the time.” He said ISWNE members can talk about it in "a therapy session" but “There are a lot of problems out there in our industry that have to be addressed and we have to get more of our publishers involved.”

Tim Waltner, retired publisher of the Freeman Courier in South Dakota, noted that state and provincial press associations have legal hotlines, and suggsted they should should have mental-health hotlines too. Anfinson called that "a great idea," noting that both major farm groups in Minnesota have mental-health hotlines for their members.

Smith said the research paper she and Miller are publishing soon in Newspaper Research Journal calls on press assocations and other organizations "to step up" and offer mental-health help, and encourages publishers to raise the issue with their readers “and say, this job is hard, but we love every minute of it because it’s our calling.”

Smith and Miller surveyed 31 Georgia and South Dakota publishers with weeklies of less than 3,000 circulation as part of a broader study about newspapers and the pandemic. Some said it affected their mental health, mainly due to financial concerns that were not entirely related to the pandemic. She said the title of their paper, based on a quote from one interviewee, is “The end of the golden era of weekly newspapering.”

Perhaps, but that's painting with a broad brush. The U.S. still has about 6,000 weekly newspapers in almost 3,000 counties, most of them rural, but with differing levels of rurality and prosperity, and many different challenges. Their success in meeting those challenges could depend partly on how much they could help each other, from one-on-one relationships to international organizations like ISWNE.

 

The isolation that defines rurality means that while there are thousands of good rural journalists, all too often they are the only person in their newsroom who fits that description. They need friends, allies and advisers, both inside and outside the industry. Let's all try to help each other.

UPDATE: Most local journalists "are burned out," Elizabeth Djinis writes for Poynter, citing a survey by the journalism school at the University of North Carolina. It's become "an institutional issue," says Scott Reinardy of the University of Kansas’s j-school.

Program finalized for National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, July 7; hotel deadline extended one week

The program for the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, July 7 in Lexington, Ky., and online, includes some of the latest research on rural journalism; and the experiences of some successful rural publishers and start-ups, both digital and print; philanthropy for rural jouranalism; efforts to change state policies to help local news; and university programs to fill gaps in local news coverage.

The summit will be a hybrid event, but most presenters will appear in person. Registration is free, and required; register here. The summit will be held at the Campbell House Curio Hotel, 10 minutes from the Lexington airport. A block of rooms at $139 per night has been extended to Friday, June 30.

The summit is sponsored by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues (publisher of The Rural Blog) at the University of Kentucky. Here's a closer look at the program:

The state of rural newspapers and the rise of ghost newspapers: Zachary Metzger, Northwestern University, will report on the latest data in the Medill School's continuing State of Local News study.

Rural publishers’ and readers’ views of alternate-revenue models: Nick Mathews, University of Missouri, will report on a study he did with Teri Finneman of the University of Kansas and Pat Ferrucci of the University of Colorado, which included an ongoing intervention with rural papers.

What it's like to be the subject in an alternate-revenue research experiment: Joey Young of Kansas Publishing Ventures, partner in the interventional research, will give his perspective on the study.

What rural publishers think about the future: Ross McDuffie, chief portfolio officer of the National Trust for Local News, will report on a survey of rural publishers that is now in the field.

Finding alternative-revenue success at a twice-weekly: David Woronoff, publisher of The Pilot in Southern Pines, N.C., will explain how his newspaper has broadened its revenue base.

Finding alternative-revenue success at a small daily: Jack Rooney, The Keene Sentinel, Keene, N.H., will do likewise, following up on the Sentinel's presentation at last year's summit.

Reviving Gannett ghosts: Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad Media, owner of many former Gannett Co. papers, discusses the difficulty of reviving rural newspapers that lost most of their circulation and revenue under ownership of the nation's largest chain.

Rural journalism as a community builder: Bonita Robertson-Hardy, co-executive director, of the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group, will discuss how accurate narratives, including high-quality journalism, help build trust and advance equitable rural prosperity.

Philanthropy for local news: Duc Luu, a jouralism officer at the Knight Foundation, moderates a panel with Richard Young of CivicLex, a local digital startup that focuses on local government and civil society; and Lillian Ruiz of Ci-X Strategies, which helps develop thriving public squares that communicate harmony, resilience and cohesion.

Broader rural news: Tim Marema, editor of The Daily Yonder, and Alana Rocha, editor of the Institite for Nonprofit News’s Rural News Network, will discuss how their online platforms bring a focus to broader rural issues and topics by exploring local examples.

Solutions journalism: Mary Steurer, government reporter for the Casper Star-Tribune, will discuss will for solutions-journalism reporting projects and beats in rural news deserts that have few existing resources. as well as ideas on how solutions journalism can be used to build trust in rural communities. Also participating: Melissa Cassutt, rural media manager of the Solutions Journalism Network.

Turning readers into correspondents and reporters: Lindsey Young of Kansas Publishing Ventures will discuss "Earn Your Press Pass," a program that she developed and is being used by state newspaper associations to help newspapers members fill gaps in local reporting.

Digital start-ups going against chain-owned small dailies: The experiences of Lynne Campbell of the Community News Brief in Macomb, Ill.; Jennifer P. Brown of the Hoptown Chronicle in Hopkinsville, Ky.; Debra Tobin of the Logan-Hocking Times in Logan, Ohio; and Nicole DeCriscio Bowe, who is just starting The Owen News in Spencer, Ind.

Seeking state policies to help local journalism: Anna Brugmann, director of policy at the Rebuild Local News Coalition, will discuss how it has turned its attention to state governments, and report on some legislative successes, including a tax break in Washington state and California House passage of a bill that would require tech platforms to give publishers money to hire journalists.

Retreating to Facebook: What do you do when you publish one of the best small weeklies in America but have reached a turnign point in life and have to give up printing your newspaper? Laurie Ezzell Brown of The Canadian Record in Texas and Ryan Craig of the Todd County Standard in Kentucky talked about how they still report on Facebook, and Craig reports on his growing audience. 

Bringing students into communities to report local news: Richard Watts of the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont moderates a panel with Alan Miller of Denison University in central Ohio and Christopher Drew of Louisiana State University.

Maintaining and growing print circulation: Patrick Schless of the Lewis County Press's Community Journalism Project says, "Strengthening community newspapers starts with print first; it is what the staff believe in, what the current subscribers know, and what the small-town advertisers understand." He's working with 70 rural papers to strengthen print product while building a bridge to a hybrid future.

Where do we go from here? Concluding roundtable, moderated by Benjy Hamm, incoming director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

The day will conclude with a cash-bar reception and optional dinner, which carries a $50 fee. The rest of the day is free of charge, thanks to the Institute and its parent units: the UK School of Journalism and Media and the College of Communication and Information.