Nearly every Saturday for the past two months, I’ve watched — and listened to — dozens, sometimes hundreds, of demonstrators gather outside the Tesla showroom on El Camino Real. Their chants, signs and presence are a response to President Donald Trump and his administration’s controversial policies. It has become a regular ritual of resistance.
At the national level, the federal administration is shifting — and not subtly. Trump has long vilified the press, but now his rhetoric is morphing into policy. On Feb. 14, his office barred the Associated Press, one of the world’s most respected news agencies, from all presidential events. On May 1, the White House signed an Executive Order to defund National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service. He has labeled journalists as the “enemy of the people” and launched lawsuits against multiple news outlets. With press access curtailed, many Americans remain unaware of the devastating censorship of journalism.
Local journalism isn’t faring any better. Since 2005, the United States has lost one-third of its newspapers and two-thirds of its journalists. With each newsroom that shuts down, we lose more than information. We lose connection to our communities, our politics, and one another.
Our understanding of each other — and of the country we live in — is growing more polarized and detached from reality by the day. It’s no coincidence that the world’s strongest democracies, including Denmark and Sweden, also have the strongest free press.
From the very beginning of this country, local journalists have played a vital role in serving as educators, watchdogs and community-builders. The press does not exist just to bear witness: Effective, independent journalism establishes the conditions for honest pluralism, not unanimity, and public understanding of local issues. At the Midpeninsula Post, we write because we believe that news stories are important to our communities. We write because these stories deserve to be told with clarity and complexity, by reporters who approach them with curiosity and good faith.
I have spent many Tuesday evenings at 25 Churchill Avenue — the Palo Alto Unified District Office — taking notes, asking questions, and watching policy unfold in real time. The past academic year has brought record controversy, especially in light of California’s newly-mandated ethnic studies graduation requirement. Local community members have packed school board meetings, debating the nuances of curricula with a level of intensity I’ve rarely seen.
But isn’t that the point? Aren’t these deliberations, as repetitive and frustrating as they may be, how we move the needle toward a more equitable future?
These kinds of conversations are disappearing at the state and national levels. Across the country, states are rolling back reproductive rights, funneling families into detention centers and purging civil servants and veterans for political reasons. Our peers are losing autonomy over their bodies, their education and their futures. This is not the democracy we, our parents and those before them fought so hard to preserve. Without strong local journalism to shine a light on these infringements — without reporters holding school boards and state legislators to account — how many stories will go unheard?
Today, we have a republic. But what about tomorrow?
Those seeking to shape the future must first understand the world they’re trying to change. We must shed our habitual apathy and stand up for the country we claim to love. We must — in the legacy of journalists like Ida Tarbell, who took on the oil monopolies; Woodward and Bernstein, who exposed the Watergate scandal; and the reporters who brought Edward Snowden’s revelations to light — be the persistent and reinvigorating voices of the future. That starts with being informed and seeking truth, by listening to the lived experiences of others.
So, what can you do?
Subscribe to your local newspapers; more than ever, they could use your readership. Support student journalism — The Stanford Daily and local high school publications are producing thoughtful, high-impact reporting. Share stories that matter. Call out misinformation when you see it. Engage with the questions that these local journalists raise: A story is only as powerful as the people willing to hear it.
To our readers: Thank you. Your trust fuels everything we do. When there is a story to be told, we hope you’ll let us be the ones to tell it.
Please continue to support local journalism. Our democracy depends on it.
