Jim believes that better support for news and journalism can save our democracy. He runs the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and stopped by a pop-up “How Cool Is This” recording booth in New York City’s Union Square Park in February 2020.

Jim: My name is Jim Friedlich, and my idea is a way to help local news. Newspapers all over the country are closing down and suffering from poor economics, and my idea is that local communities, community members should support their local news in the same way they do other philanthropies like the hospital, the community college or the local art museum or the orchestra. It’s a way to save local news and newspapers and therefore our democracy.

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Nick: Brian, what do you think of this new model of funding local news?

Brian: We can agree that local news is important. Is it cool? Newspeople think it’s cooler than it is.

Nick: Explain to me how the news is not cool. Explain to me how being informed is not cool.

Brian: I didn’t say it’s not cool. I’m saying that people in news are a lot bigger fans of news than people not in news.

Nick: I think you could argue that sometimes when news is bad, it doesn’t feel very cool, but I do think it is cool to be in the know, to know what’s going on.

Brian: It’s not cool to be left out.

Nick: I don’t know if you’ve ever felt left out before. It’s one of the most uncool feelings you can have.

Brian: I usually, when I notice people are talking about something, try to consume news about it so I can also contribute to the conversation, should I have an interesting perspective.

Nick: I don’t think that’s a totally disingenuous reason to consume news. Let me ask you think. Would you pay for better local news in your community?

Brian: I theoretically would, but I don’t.

Nick: Why not?

Brian: Because I don’t have to.

Nick: I pay for some news. I pay for a subscription to the New York Magazine, which I think you could argue, as a resident of New York, is technically local news.

Brian: Do you support the local hospital?

Nick: I think I support the local hospital in the sense that sometimes I go there, but I think Jim is speaking more of small town hospitals, local hospitals, local institutions that take care of the townsfolk.

Brian: Is it cool for two New Yorkers to parachute into local communities and talk about how they should do their news? 

Nick: I don’t think it’s cool, but it has not stopped New Yorkers from doing that time and time again.

Brian: I would be okay if there a local tax that supported local news.

Nick: Part of our taxes right now already go to local infrastructure - roads, fire department protection, police protection, other bits of infrastructure that keep us safe and keep us moving and keep us working, and you could argue that the newspaper is doing something similar.

Brian: How so?

Nick: I think that local news is a piece of infrastructure in a community.

Brian: As someone who went to journalism school, like you, I have a feeling that there is an oversaturation of information right now. News itself is very important and it’s very challenging to think about how it can stand out from your TikTok, which is also cool.

Nick: Part of the problem is that news itself needs to figure out how to be cooler.

Brian: When you think about news, news is cool in theory, but it’s not in practice.

Nick: What’s the coolest piece of news you’ve ever consumed?

Brian: Probably some type of investigation. Everyone loves a news investigation.

Nick: I saw the other day that a dog got elected mayor of a town. I thought that was pretty cool news.

Brian: That town could have benefitted from having more news.

Nick: You could argue that that dog could have been vetted before the voters decided that the dog should be the mayor.

Brian: I do worry that the voters did not research the dog. They could have really dug something up.

Nick: So, herein lies the problem. Unless local news has proper funding, the local populace might elect a dog as mayor.

Brian: That actually might be more effective than your corrupt human.

Nick: You could argue that we have had many dogs as mayors here in New York City.

Learn more about Parker The Snowdog and his dangerous fiscal policies on so-called People.com.

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