American Deadline: Reporting from Four News-Starved Towns in the Trump Era(Columbia Journalism Review Books)

The dramatic events of 2020-the presidential election, the COVID-19 pandemic, protests for racial justice-affected every corner of American life. What did these events mean for the residents of small towns and cities that are often overlooked by national newspapers? How do local stories change when they are told by journalists with roots in these communities? And what is lost as this kind of coverage disappears?

American Deadline brings together dispatches from four longtime local journalists in different parts of the United States that tell the story of 2020 anew. It shares reporting from Bowling Green, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; McKeesport, Pennsylvania; and McAllen, Texas-two towns that lost their local newspapers and two where they are barely hanging on. The authors consider what makes each town distinctive and how these local perspectives tell a part of a broader American story. This book reports on how residents of these towns grapple with and talk about issues relating to race, schooling, health, immigration, deindustrialization, as well as local and national politics amid a changing and increasingly precarious information ecosystem. A distinct and intimate look at a calamitous year, American Deadline is an important book for all readers interested in the possibilities and future of local journalism.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction, by Michael Shapiro
1. The Mystery of Caroline County, Virginia (Bowling Green)
2. What’s Vexing Macon, Georgia? (Macon)
3. Red Streets versus Blue Streets in McKeesport, Pennsylvania (McKeesport)
4. Fighting the Wall Along the Rio Grande (McAllen)
5. Are Democrats an Endangered Species in Caroline County? (Bowling Green)
6. Yes, Dorothy, We Are Way Outside the Beltway (Macon)
7. Fear and Loathing in the Time of Coronavirus (McKeesport)
8. In the Rio Grande Valley, a Border Closes, and Signs of a Wall Appear as the Pandemic Spreads (McAllen)
9. The Ghost of a Weekly Covers the Pandemic (Bowling Green)
10. Standing on Sinking Sand, Living in Limbo (Macon)
11. Transparency in a Time of Pandemic (McKeesport)
12. COVID-19 Has Changed How We Report Stories on the Border (McAllen)
13. How the Pandemic Is Playing in Rural Virginia (Bowling Green)
14. A Good Idea at the Time (Macon)
15. In Towns Like McKeesport, the Future Was Already Precarious. Then Came Coronavirus. (McKeesport)
16. Saving Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge Extends Beyond Political Boundaries (McAllen)
17. At the Edge of a Pandemic, Its Direction Unknown (Bowling Green)
18. Dirty Politics in the Digital Age (Macon)
19. How Facebook Has Undermined Communal Conversation in McKeesport (McKeesport)
20. South Texas Was Reopening. Now COVID-19 Is Roaring Back. (McAllen)
21. Racism, Confederate Statues, and the View from Frog Level, Virginia (Bowling Green)
22. Macon–Bibb County Votes While a Nation Protests (Macon)
23. “McAllen and South Texas Need Help Now” (McAllen)
24. When a Newspaper Dies, What Fills the Void? (Bowling Green)
25. To School or Not to School—a Burning Question (Macon)
26. What Will “Normal” Mean After COVID-19? (McKeesport)
27. South Texas Is a Bad Algorithm Right Now (McAllen)
28. In Rural Virginia, a Tale of Two Congressional Districts (Bowling Green)
29. A Local Election, School Reopenings, and the Pandemic (Macon)
30. Will Western Pennsylvania Become a String of Ghost Towns? (McKeesport)
31. Where Are the Campaign Signs and the Politiqueras? (McAllen)
32. A Confederate Soldier Moves On (Bowling Green)
33. Macon–Bibb County and the Unrelenting Shock of COVID-19 (Macon)
34. Will the Sons of Steelworkers See Trump’s COVID-19 Behavior as Strong or Reckless? (McKeesport)
35. Counting on Next Year Being Much Better (McAllen)
36. Election Day Approaches
Postscript: January 20, 2021
Index

About the Author :
Greg Glassner has more than forty years of experience in the newspaper business, the majority of it as editor of community weeklies in Virginia, including the Herald-Progress in Ashland. He is the author of five books, including biographies of Attorney General William Wirt and Governor William “Extra Billy” Smith of Virginia.

Charles Richardson is a McClatchy Journalism Fellow at Duke University and a fellow at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland. He has worked in newspapers, radio, and television and was the editorial page editor at the Macon Telegraph for twenty-four years.

Sandra Sanchez has been a journalist for the past thirty years, including many years covering the Southwest border and immigration for USA Today. She also worked at the Washington Post; was the opinion editor for The Monitor in McAllen, Texas; and is currently a correspondent for Nexstar Media Group’s BorderReport.com.

Jason Togyer is the founder of Tube City Online, a nonprofit news website and internet radio station. He previously worked as a reporter for the Washington, Pennsylvania, Observer-Reporter, McKeesport Daily News, and Greensburg and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Review :
American Deadline offers a fresh and unique chronicle of a year we’ll never forget—2020—through the lens of four communities where newspapers have weakened or vanished. These dispatches from the front lines of democracy—communities in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia—remind us of what's lost when Americans have only national (and increasingly partisan) news sources. American Deadline reminds us that local news is never more needed than in a crisis like a pandemic. We need local news not just to hold local officials accountable but to provide a more nuanced, textured view of politics from the ground up. Communities across America have been starved of reliable local news. This book vividly illustrates the dire consequences for our democracy. For those of us trying to bolster local news in the U.S., American Deadline offers more compelling evidence for why this coverage matters. In a series of astute, nuanced dispatches, four veteran journalists describe the same year in the life of their disparate communities after their local newsroom has withered or died. Critical elections with no candidate coverage. Rampant Covid misinformation. No government watchdogs. This is front-line reporting that’s a must read. Well-written and comprehensive, American Deadline is a fascinating look at how the tensions that are tearing us apart at the national level also affect community life. [A] unique and often heart-wrenching collaboration . . . the reporting is consistently fine-grained, evocative, and insightful. It’s a fitting testament to the value of local journalism. [This book] serves as a valuable resource for those unfamiliar with the lived experiences within news deserts or areas impacted by the decline of local news, while also complementing the growing body of academic work in the space. Above all, the authors compellingly demonstrate that the loss of local news profoundly affects readers. Those who believe that introspection is the path to progress — as I do — will be captivated by this book.