Members of Report for America (RFA), a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues, visited the MV Times at its Vineyard Haven office Thursday as part of the National Association of Black Journalists’ events on the Island.
Tim Lampley, recruitment manager for RFA, and Vincent McCraw, RFA regional manager, joined young journalists around the wooden office table to discuss the decline in local journalists and newsrooms despite the desperate need for them. Local journalism strengthens communities, keeps officials accountable, and is foundational to continued democracy, they said.
The National Association of Black Journalists convened a forum of thought leaders and political analysts Wednesday afternoon at the Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs to discuss the role of journalism in a deeply divided time in America, under the banner “Guardians of the Truth: Protecting the 4th Estate in an Era of Crisis.”
The public event, which was set to occur after the deadline for this edition of The MV Times, marked the third annual gathering of NABJ here on the Island, and came on the heels of the NABJ national convention in Cleveland, where hundreds of top journalists and news executives gathered to celebrate the association’s 50th anniversary.
Dorothy Tucker, a reporter for CBS News in Chicago and a former president of the NABJ, is the organizer of the local gathering in Oak Bluffs. She said, “This year’s panel features nationally recognized journalists who offer incredible insight into the inner workings of our government. We hope the audience will leave better educated, informed, and enlightened.”
In partnership with the nonprofit journalism organization Report for America and locally sponsored by The MV Times, the NABJ panel discussion was moderated by Kim Godwin, former president of ABC News, and the first Black woman to run a broadcast network news operation.
The panelists include: Charles Blow, a former New York Times opinion columnist, and recently named inaugural Langston Hughes Fellow at Harvard University; Eugene Daniels, MSNBC’s senior Washington correspondent; Linsey Davis, an anchor for ABC News; and Akayla Gardner,White House correspondent. Vincent D. McCraw, the Midwest regional manager for Report for America, and president of the Detroit NABJ chapter, said, “RFA’s role in helping to sustain local news in communities around the country includes providing tools and resources to our host newsrooms that allow them to be guardians of truth.
“In these challenging times for the news industry, local newsrooms and their reporters are on the frontline fighting disinformation while delivering fact-based reports to their audiences,” McCraw said. “The session at Union Chapel will highlight how journalists are grappling with the changed landscape and the constant threat against truth in reporting.”
MV Times Publisher Charles Sennott, who is also the co-founder of Report for America, said,“We are honored to serve once again as the local sponsors of this event, and to be part of convening such an important dialogue at such a distressing time in our country. Having had a chance to talk with the NABJ organizers and the panelists in advance of the event, it is very clear that we all share an understanding that the crisis in local journalism has everything to do with the crisis in democracy.”
Seeking to address this crisis in which 2.5 local newspapers are shutting down every week in America, Report for America has emerged as a leading national service program that has placed more than 700 journalists into more than 300 newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
The MV Times opened its newsroom at 30 Beach Road today, Thursday, at 10 am to host an information session about Report for America and the importance of sustaining local news. The informal session was led by the Report for America team in town for the NABJ event. The session was open to anyone interested in serving their community as a local journalist and video clips will be posted at mvtimes.com and its social media pages soon.