The deepening and continuing effects of the broad-brush federal defunding and shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with a sharply cut New Jersey state appropriation for operating expenses correcting diseconomies, are becoming clearer, as well as severely critical and worrisome. The NJ Spotlight News/NJ PBS team, and correspondingly coverage of our state’s most challenging issues in Trenton and statewide, have been reduced, not as a reflection of their performance or dedication. The NJ Spotlight News/NJ PBS team is widely recognized for its intelligence, fairness and integrity, and as guardians of the public trust placed in them. And if not for them and their professionalism, who else would serve you?
Wherever you may reside along the political spectrum, your tolerance for the drumbeat of news and policy and over-opinionated talking heads may be waning, but your insistence on hearing the truth from honest and trusted sources should not. While the pennies-a-year-per citizen that your government spends (or, now more appropriately, spent) on consistently trusted public media may not be at the top of your kitchen-table- priorities, it should be. New Jersey is a well-educated, populous state devoid of primary, serious commercial and “non-pay-walled” television news and public affairs coverage. Compounding this problem, New Jersey – like every other state in our union – has fallen victim to a crisis in journalism, and continues to experience community newsroom consolidation, downsizing, and closure, with news deserts forming in all of our 21 counties. As newspapers close or downsize, useful reporting on state, local and regional issues continues to decline precipitously.
The New York Times wrote that: “Like publications in the rest of the country, New Jersey’s suburban newspapers pulled back as their business model vaporized, leaving fewer reporters to dig into local scandals or dispatch to neighborhood events. … The declining fortunes of [New Jersey’s] newspapers are part of a retrenchment in newspaper publishing across the country, but they have been acutely felt because of New Jersey newspapers’ role in holding powerful institutions and people accountable.”
Acting as an important counterweight to these trends, among other unifying programming, NJ PBS produces and broadcasts a half-hour week-nightly live news program – NJ Spotlight News – as well as local public affairs programming and a twice-daily in-depth digital newsletter, unique in their focus on broad and esoteric Garden State issues. NJ PBS also
makes these news programs available online, streaming and on-demand, in whole or parts. Its New Jersey-centric content knits the state together, striving for a more informed (and hopefully less misinformed) citizenry.
In a state with over nine million residents, local television that New Jerseyans receive – particularly those that produce news – originates from across its borders in either New York City or Philadelphia. For some of New Jersey, local TV news means news from a statewide, “pay-walled” cable news network such as News 12 New Jersey. And while these sources do provide some coverage of New Jersey, for stations located outside of the state, any coverage of New Jersey is dictated, at least in part, by whether the stories are also of interest to residents of New York or Philadelphia.
Recognition and support in all forms, financial and otherwise, of New Jerseyans who see the need for public media is greatly appreciated. Incisive and insightful coverage of New Jersey policy, law, health, education, people, diversity, culture, arts, history and life remains of critical importance to our remaining an exceptional, albeit complicated, place to live. There is much more serious work that needs to be done to prevent irreparable harm to our being well informed, with further communication to come.
Scott Kobler is the longtime chair of both New Jersey Network and NJ PBS. The opinions expressed are his own.
