How one Virginia county an hour from D.C. became a news desert
How one Virginia county an hour from D.C. became a news desert
They say all politics is local. So where’s the local news coverage this election year? Members of the “Marketplace Morning Report” team have been traveling to what are called “news deserts” in Super Tuesday states to hear about the business models that are failing or informing voters as they make their choices on Tuesday. Earlier in the week, we reported from Val Verde County, Texas. On Wednesday, we heard from North Carolina, where sparse local news coverage may have played a part in a congressional election so questionable, there was a do-over. Today, voices from a news desert that’s about an hour’s drive from the center of American politics.
“It is this newspaper’s desire to print all of the news throughout King George County,” said Renee Parker, president of the King George Historical Society, reading from the archives. It’s a newspaper called the King George News. “For your convenience, we have secured correspondents in every section of the county.”
The paper isn’t hot off the presses but rather yellowed in a museum. It’s from June 1948. That vintage paper bit the dust decades ago. The last local paper published in this county was a different one called the King George Journal.
Joel Davis was the final editor and publisher who valiantly kept things going for about a year until the paper’s last edition in 2017.
“When I first got the job, three of the largest advertisers called within a month and pulled their advertising, and I asked, ‘Why?’ And they said, ‘Well, you know, it’s free on Facebook. Can you beat free?’ Well, obviously not,” he said.
“Unfortunately, there are, you know, whatever percent of the population will get whatever they need off Facebook,” said Parker, who once ran for county supervisor. “So they’re reading whatever, you know, somebody’s hoping that they’ll believe because they believe it, which can be good and can be bad. We see a lot of that in our local elections.”
The Free Lance-Star newspaper, published a half hour away in Fredericksburg, does have an ace reporter named Cathy Dyson who gets over here when she can. It’s owned by Lee Enterprises, which has papers in 25 states. And its staff — like so many newspapers around the country, given low ad revenue — is much reduced nowadays.
King George resident Lynn Pardee works in family law, typically with children. Her work is in Montross, which is roughly a half-hour away. “And they have papers down there. I can read and know what the kids are doing at the high school, I can read what’s going on locally in their government,” she said.
Meanwhile, Carrie Gonzalez, who recently finished a four-year term on the local county school board, reported that, in terms of news media interest, “I’m going to say [there was] none, but I’d have to think about whether or not that’s accurate.”
“You mentioned the Free Lance-Star, the Fredericksburg paper,” she went on. “I’m trying to think. We probably made a couple maybe an article or two in there maybe.”
Ed Jones spent his childhood on the navy base, the largest employer in King George County.
“From the time I was in high school to almost 50 years later, I worked at the Free Lance-Star newspaper in Fredericksburg,” he said. “I had just about every position at that paper you can think of from film critic to editorial page editor to editor. It’s ironic that the county is larger than it’s ever been, more complex than it’s ever been, and yet the news resources are depleted.”
That’s even with smartphones full of information.
“It has to be credible information. So how do you determine whether it’s credible?” Jones said.” Well, back in the day, if you trusted your local newspaper, they’re not trying to throw me a curveball.”
Some newsstands here display the Northern Neck Sentinel, a free publication from two counties over. The online edition we saw had headlines comparing quote “leftist violence” to 1930s Germany and a headline “Illegal Aliens Invade Region.” There was an item of local news from King George about county supervisors getting sworn in.
This evolving media landscape places burdens on residents.
Adam Simonoff, a retired engineer who used to work for the Navy, has lived in King George County, Virginia, since 1983. He has a theory that people, in effect, create their own news deserts.
“I think that if you don’t want to look at mainstream media and then compare it to other media, and you only want to look at something that you agree with, you’ve now blocked yourself off and you’ve created your own news desert,” he said. “Because you’re not checking. You’re going to listen to perhaps what a politician tells you and you’re not going to listen to what a news reporter tells you.”
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