MGW members support ethics standard for publicly funded journalism

At an April 4, 2022, quarterly membership meeting, Media Guild of the West members voted 94% to 6% to adopt the following resolution.

Whereas, the collapse of the traditional business model for local journalism has brought a dramatic decline in the amount and quality of information available to communities in “news deserts” across the U.S.;

Whereas, independent journalism is essential to well functioning democracies, and the loss of local newsrooms has been correlated with with more corruption, fewer competitive elections, more wasteful government spending, and lower awareness of elected officials; 

Whereas, California lawmakers have begun debating a bill, Senate Bill 911, to create a California Board to Fund Public Interest Media in an effort to promote independent, local public service news coverage; 

Whereas, many democracies have long supported noncommercial forms of public media, such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the U.S.;

Whereas, journalists should be consulted on the making of public policy about journalism;

Whereas, public funding should be stable and insulated from partisan control or corrupt influence; 

Whereas, funding should support independent journalism that fills a void in the community;

Whereas, grants to private entities should favor need and ability, not medium or ideology;

Whereas, publicly funded journalism should be free or widely available to the public;

Whereas, publicly funded journalists must expect fair labor standards;

Therefore, be it resolved: 

The members of Media Guild of the West, The NewsGuild-CWA Local 39213, support efforts by the Executive Committee to shape SB 911 into a measure that satisfies these ethical standards.