[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 68 (Thursday, April 18, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2888-S2889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 651--DESIGNATING APRIL 2024 AS ``PRESERVING AND 
   PROTECTING LOCAL NEWS MONTH'' AND RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE AND 
                       SIGNIFICANCE OF LOCAL NEWS

  Mr. SCHATZ (for himself, Mr. Fetterman, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Cantwell, 
Mr. Padilla, Mr. Welch, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Durbin, Mr. 
Warner, Mr. Kelly, Mr. King, and Ms. Butler) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 651

       Whereas the United States was founded on the principle of 
     freedom of the press enshrined in the First Amendment to the 
     Constitution of the United States, which declares that 
     ``Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of 
     speech, or of the press . . .'';

[[Page S2889]]

       Whereas an informed citizenry depends on accurate and 
     unbiased news reporting to inform the judgment of the people;
       Whereas a robust, diverse, and sustainable local news 
     presence leads to civic engagement and the buttressing of 
     democratic norms and practices;
       Whereas local news provides vital information on local, 
     State, and national elections to help United States citizens 
     execute their civic responsibility;
       Whereas the absence of local news outlets and investigative 
     reporting allows local government corruption and corporate 
     malfeasance to go unchecked;
       Whereas local journalists help combat misinformation and 
     disinformation by using their community knowledge and 
     connections to debunk fraudulent or misleading content;
       Whereas local cable franchises routinely provide for public 
     educational and government access channels on their systems, 
     and those channels--
       (1) offer vital local civic programming that informs 
     communities;
       (2) provide news and information not often available on 
     other local broadcast channels or cable;
       (3) supplement local journalism; and
       (4) at times, are the only source for local news;
       Whereas more than \3/4\ of the United States citizenry 
     trust local news sources;
       Whereas, according to recent research--
       (1) the United States has lost nearly 2,900 local print 
     outlets since 2005, which accounts for over \1/4\ of all 
     local print outlets, and is on track to lose \1/3\ of all 
     local print outlets by 2025;
       (2) an average of 2.5 local print outlets are being 
     shuttered every week in the United States;
       (3) more than 200 of the 3,143 counties and county 
     equivalents in the United States have no local newspaper at 
     all, creating a news shortage for the roughly 4,000,000 
     residents of those areas;
       (4) of the remaining counties in the United States, more 
     than \1/2\ have only 1 newspaper to cover populations ranging 
     from fewer than 1,000 to more than 1,000,000 residents and 
     \2/3\ have no daily newspaper, with fewer than 100 of these 
     counties having a digital substitute;
       (5) more than \1/2\ of all newspapers in the United States 
     have changed owners during the past decade, and, in 2020, the 
     25 largest newspaper ownership companies owned \1/3\ of all 
     daily newspapers, including 70 percent of newspapers that 
     still circulate daily;
       (6) of the surviving 6,700 newspapers in the United States, 
     thousands now qualify as ``ghost newspapers'', or newspapers 
     with reporting and photography staffs that are so 
     significantly reduced that they can no longer provide much of 
     the breaking news or public service journalism that once 
     informed readers about vital issues in their communities;
       (7) rural counties are among the counties most deeply 
     impacted by the loss of local reporting, as more than 500 of 
     the nearly 2,900 newspapers that have closed since 2005 are 
     in rural counties; and
       (8) researchers at Northwestern University's Medill School 
     of Journalism estimate that 228 counties in the United States 
     are at an elevated risk of becoming news deserts in the next 
     5 years, which would inordinately impact high-poverty areas 
     in the South and Midwest and communities with significant 
     Black, Latino, and Native American populations;
       Whereas, while overall employment in newspaper, television, 
     radio, and digital newsrooms dropped by roughly 26 percent, 
     or 30,000 jobs, between 2008 and 2020, the plunge in 
     newspaper newsrooms alone was much worse at 57 percent, or 
     40,000 jobs, during that same time period;
       Whereas the number of news employees in the radio 
     broadcasting industry dropped by 26 percent between 2008 and 
     2020;
       Whereas more than 21,400 media jobs were lost in 2023, the 
     highest number, excluding 2020, since the height of the Great 
     Recession in 2009;
       Whereas digital native publications have laid off hundreds 
     of journalists, including over 500 in January 2024 alone, and 
     many of those publications have shuttered during the last 
     year;
       Whereas beat reporting, meaning the day-to-day coverage of 
     a particular field that allows a journalist to develop 
     expertise and cultivate sources, has ceased to be a viable 
     career for would-be journalists due to the decimation of 
     newsroom budgets;
       Whereas requests submitted under section 552 of title 5, 
     United States Code (commonly referred to as ``Freedom of 
     Information Act requests''), by local newspapers to local, 
     State, and Federal agencies fell by nearly 50 percent between 
     2005 and 2010, demonstrating a significant drop in the extent 
     to which local reporters request government records;
       Whereas newspapers alone lost more than $39,800,000,000 in 
     advertising revenue between 2005 and 2020;
       Whereas the sponsorship revenue of all-news radio stations 
     dropped by 25 percent between 2019 and 2021;
       Whereas there remains a significant gender disparity in 
     newsroom employment, with women comprising approximately \1/
     3\ of staff who are 30 years of age or older;
       Whereas women who are local television news anchors and 
     reporters, especially women of color, are often subject to 
     harassment and stalking;
       Whereas, across the United States, there are nearly 300 
     media outlets that primarily serve Black communities, and, in 
     recent years, many of those newspapers have seen--
       (1) significant losses in advertising revenue as small 
     businesses in their communities were forced to close; and
       (2) declines in circulation due to the closures of 
     businesses in their communities;
       Whereas the number of Black journalists working at daily 
     newspapers dropped by 40 percent between 1997 and 2014, more 
     than for any other demographic group, and the exodus of 
     journalists from local news outlets exacerbated amid the 
     economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has been 
     disproportionately borne by Black constituencies;
       Whereas the number of print media sources published by and 
     for Native American readers has shrunk dramatically in recent 
     years, from 700 media outlets in 1998 to only 200 in 2018;
       Whereas Tribally owned news outlets are often dependent on 
     Tribal governments for funding, but most of those outlets 
     lack the policy structure necessary to fully protect 
     journalistic independence;
       Whereas a 2018 survey by the Native American Journalists 
     Association found that 83 percent of respondents believed 
     that Native press coverage of Tribal government affairs was 
     sometimes, frequently, or always censored;
       Whereas there are more than 620 Latino news media outlets 
     in the United States, including more than 275 independently 
     owned print publications, and collectively these news media 
     outlets primarily rely on a declining advertising revenue 
     base;
       Whereas the lack of local news impacts communities that 
     speak languages other than English, which are often excluded 
     from national media coverage;
       Whereas investments in local journalism have mainly focused 
     on larger media markets, contributing to inequities and a 
     journalistic divide between affluent and low-income 
     communities;
       Whereas student journalists, at both the college and high 
     school level, have stepped in to play an important role 
     reporting on their local communities despite the lack of 
     educational resources and support;
       Whereas the Pew Research Center reports that nearly 1 in 10 
     statehouse reporters are student journalists;
       Whereas more than 360 local newsrooms have closed from the 
     onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 to the present 
     day;
       Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic took a substantial economic 
     toll on the local news industry, contributing to budget cuts, 
     staff layoffs, and scores of newsroom closures, from which 
     the industry has yet to fully recover, as epitomized by mass 
     layoffs and closures at several local news outlets in the 50 
     States and the District of Columbia in 2023 and early 2024;
       Whereas PEN America proposed ``a major reimagining of the 
     local news space'' in its 2019 call-to-action report, 
     ``Losing the News: The Decimation of Local Journalism and the 
     Search for Solutions'', and called on society and the Federal 
     Government to urgently address the alarming demise of local 
     journalism; and
       Whereas, half a century ago, Congress perceived that the 
     commercial television industry would not independently 
     provide the educational and public interest broadcasting that 
     was appropriate and necessary for the country, and, informed 
     by an independent report prepared by the Carnegie Commission 
     on Educational Television, created the Corporation for Public 
     Broadcasting, which has since ensured that radio and 
     television include public interest educational and reporting 
     programs using annually appropriated funds: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) designates April 2024 as ``Preserving and Protecting 
     Local News Month'';
       (2) affirms that local news serves an essential function in 
     the democracy of the United States;
       (3) recognizes local news as a public good; and
       (4) acknowledges the valuable contributions of local 
     journalism towards the maintenance of healthy and vibrant 
     communities.

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