The local news crisis matters for the simple reason that news provides the facts people need to govern themselves. If we lose local news, everything that follows is bad: less local knowledge and community debate, fewer candidates and voters, more expensive government and more corruption.
When local journalism works best, it helps people understand each other and solve common problems. But the more impactful stories require special effort. Enter the lawyers. Someone must sue to liberate public information. Someone must review stories before publication to protect journalists from frivolous lawsuits.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and a relatively small group of other funders have over decades helped nonprofits create a legal safety net for journalists and news outlets.
But much of it still lives on year-to-year funding. And it’s still too small.
Rebuilding local news won’t go far without pro bono lawyers.
Together, journalists and lawyers can produce lasting results — not just for journalists, but for all Americans. Here’s a snapshot of documents obtained and stories reviewed in 2023, from just some of the grantees funded by Knight Foundation.
Reforming a city’s deadly police department
Vallejo, a mid-sized city in the San Francisco Bay Area, had one of the worst records of…
