The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set newsroom policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.
Michael Cianchette is a Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan. He is in-house counsel to a number of businesses in southern Maine and was a chief counsel to former Gov. Paul LePage.
Whether it is nonprofit or for-profit, do you trust the press?
The newsiest news this week in Maine media was the announcement of the deal between Masthead Maine and the National Trust for Local News. The trust will be taking over most of the former’s media empire, including every daily paper in Maine not named the Bangor Daily News.
Reactions have varied. Some see it merely as a continuation of the status quo. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” The trust has said they will work with the existing unions, preserve staff, and the like.
Others, including some of my friends with a more conservative outlook, see ill omens. The National Trust for Local News is supported by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the Heartland Fund, which in turn is supported by Democracy Alliance, described by Politico as “the country’s most powerful liberal donor club.”
The concern is that the new ownership will push coverage in line with their desired political goals. There is an old saying about arguing with people who buy ink by the barrel. Newspapers can still publish information far and wide, even in a new media world.
With respect, I’m not sure I share the concerns of my friends. One reason is because the “Masthead Maine” empire has been fairly left-of-center for decades. I cannot find the last time the Portland Press Herald or Maine Sunday Telegram – their flagship paper – endorsed a Republican in an open race for a major office.
Now, newsrooms are separate from editorial boards. Reporting is different from opinion. But organizations, including news outlets, have cultures. And cultures shape perspectives. After all, determining which stories are worthy of coverage is an inherently biased act that requires human beings to make judgment calls.
The dominant culture in the media writ large is not right leaning. In the 2022 American Journalist survey, only 3.4 percent of respondents said they were Republican; 36.4 percent said they were Democrats. Said another way, there are 10 Democrats in the media for every one Republican.
This likely contributes to the loss of trust in the news media by the American public: 26 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the press; 53 percent view them unfavorably, according to a 2022 survey. Contrast that with the Supreme Court, where 42 percent of Americans have a favorable view.
As I’ve written before, some of this challenge is of the media’s own making. Sometimes reporters get facts in their stories wrong or omit critical context. That just means they are human. But for those who may know a lot more about a particular topic, it can appear that they are misleading their readers.
Yet the solution isn’t to write off the writers. Instead, it is important to try and get your information from multiple sources. The continuation of the southern Maine weeklies is good news on that front.
If you want to know what is really happening in Maine, particularly in the public arena, read the Bangor Daily News. And the Portland Press Herald. Wherever there are areas of overlap in the stories suggests a higher degree of accuracy in the information.
If you think they are approaching stories from a left-of-center perspective, take some time to cross-reference with the “Maine Wire,” the news project of the Maine Policy Center.
Or if you are worried that an industry with a 10-to-1 Democratic advantage is too right wing, you can read the Maine People’s Alliance’s “Maine Beacon” and their regular columnists like former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling.
When it comes to reading the news, I’ll suggest that Ronald Reagan’s famous adage – trust, but verify – is appropriate. Most reporters and editors want to get things right. They have limited resources to do so.
But, for now, I trust that the continuation of the “Masthead Maine” papers under the ownership of the National Trust for Local News is a good thing. At least until reports indicate otherwise.
