In three months, delegates from the Washington state League will travel to the LWVUS national convention in Washington, D.C., to seek national concurrence of the LWVWA’s Local News and Democracy position:
“It is the responsibility of the government to provide support for conditions under which credible local journalism can survive and thrive.”
If adopted at the national convention in June, the position will empower Leagues throughout the country—at the local, state and national levels—to advocate for national legislation as well as local efforts to rebuild local news.
You can help Washingtonians mount a winning campaign. We will send as many of our potential 53 delegates as possible from local Leagues throughout our state. But doing so is costly. With the registration fee ($550), airfare, hotel, meals, and ground transportation, we estimate costs for each in-person delegate to be at least $2,200. Sending delegates to attend in person will allow us to mount a more powerful and effective campaign, but some of our delegates will attend virtually, with a $150 registration fee.
We could use your financial support! Perhaps this story will inspire you.
One Washington League member never met the man who inspired her recent donation to the LWVWA’s efforts to help address the local news crisis. While growing up, our benefactor said she’d heard her parents praise the Pulitzer Prize-winning World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, who chronicled the trials and tribulations of thousands of ordinary American airmen and soldiers, first on the battlefields in Europe and then in the Pacific.
“Pyle told people back at home how the ordinary soldiers were doing,” said the League member, who asked not to be identified by name, but explained her father was severely wounded in the Battle of Okinawa. “People on the home front heard from someone who was in the trenches with their loved ones.”
Ernie Pyle with a tank crew from the 191st Tank Battalion, US Army at the Anzio Beachhead in 1944. Photo courtesy of U.S. Army Center of Military History.
Nearly 80 years later, that human connection, made possible by newspaper reports of both life-altering and every-day events of friends, neighbors and family, is among the several losses we’re experiencing as the local news crisis continues.
The crisis, which has closed one-quarter of the nation’s newspapers and is on track to close one-third by next year, also has been linked with lower voter participation, less civic engagement, fewer candidates for public office, higher government costs and challenges to public health.
As a result of our two-year study, “The Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy,” and concurrence of local leagues across the state, the position earned consensus of our Washington league last year. This enabled the LWVWA to advocate for legislation and programs in the Evergreen state to support local news, media literacy and greater access to local news.
Now you can help the Washington delegates take our position to the national stage. Support local news with a donation to help offset costs for all Washington delegates to the national convention. Rebuilding local news is a cornerstone of the League’s mission of empowering voters and defending democracy, an ever-so-important effort at this time in our nation’s history.
As a Washington State University professor interviewed by the study committee two years ago described the news crisis: “It’s not a journalism problem. It’s a democracy problem.”
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