The press as we knew it is all but gone...
There is more newspaper consolidation happening right now now
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/01/29/warren-buffett-said-newspapers-were-going-disappear-now-hes-disappearing-industry/From that article "Of the nation’s remaining 7,200 newspapers, at least 1,000 are “ghost papers” — meaning they’ve been so hobbled by cutbacks that they produce little original reporting..." Twenty percent of papers closed since 2004.
The newspaper problem isn't with the reporters per se, it's corporate. I know reporters for papers in Ulster and Orange and they are often hamstrung when it comes to what they can cover and where. Some of the reporters are generally friendly towards us and some are not as they came from areas where people generally are not socialized to guns. I'm working on the later with one but when she's are covering multiple murders and shootings on a near daily basis it's a tough sell. I'm trying to get her to separate the criminal users from the vast majority of non-criminal users in her thinking. We can help by subscribing to either print or on-line versions of the local papers and thoughtfully commenting on articles... they need the revenue to survive as "news" operations instead of repeaters and we need to use our voices regularly and not let others speak for us.
The cable and broadcast news isn't much better as there is more commentary than there is reporting. Even on Fox... We do have some friends there though, e.g., Sandra Smith came to several of our Ruffed Grouse Society banquets in Kingston. She's a bird hunter and has a very nice GSH.
https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/hunting/qa-fox-reporter-sandra-smith-upland-birds-aldo-leopold-and-gun-dogs-0/ BTW, Whiskey grew up to be enormous.
With Google and Facebook controlling the web there's not much hope there either.
It is my firm belief that we have to be our own diplomats and each of us has to adopt one or more politicians (that includes committee members, committee chairs and party bosses), and adopt one or more people in the press with whom we develop relationships. It's not that difficult to gain entry... I figured it out when I was in my 20s... Put yourself out there and invite yourself to the party--soon you will be invited to the party. That's how I met Don B. Kates Jr. and found myself immersed in the national gun debate. I met Bob Barr a few times---he led the charge in Clinton's impeachment
--as well as many other researchers, politicians, lobbyists, and reporters.
