CNN ends “Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter”

E&P; Exclusives

The American people will hear a lot about immigration in the coming months as the country prepares for a controversial midterm election. Politicians and pundits will mute everything, reducing the issue to incendiary talking points, while journalists are privy to the real stories of politics and people, desperation and resilience, tenacity, hope and ambition, injustices and victories.

Newspapers were once at the heart of local communities – a vital way for Americans to discover their neighbors and share information. But now, as newspapers close across the country, the malignant spread of misinformation and misinformation takes their place. A Medill report titled “The State of Local News 2025” reveals that one-fifth of the population lives in a news desert or a community at risk of becoming one.

There’s no shortage of powerful people with deep pockets and teams of lawyers ready to put pressure on newsrooms. The biggest national news agencies anticipate this and have in-house lawyers ready to defend journalism, but local news outlets are vulnerable to bullying. And that seemed to be the case at The Aspen Times, which made its own headlines this summer.

Read E&P; exclusives