The Boston Globe - 08.08.2019

THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 The Boston Globe Opinion A

cal newsrooms are participat-

ing in the initiative, and seven

projects are specifically fo-

cused on state government.

Mobilizing college students

is also underway. In its second

year, Report for America is

placing 61 paid student jour-

nalists in 50 newsrooms span-

ning 30 states and Puerto Ri-

co. This year 940 students ap-

plied for the 50 spots, and

those selected will join news-

papers, public radio stations,

digital-first nonprofits, the As-

sociated Press, weeklies, and

local TV stations, all in an ef-

fort to bolster local news. They

hope to have 250 reporters in

the field in 2020.

But all eyes are on the

American Journalism Project,

a venture journalism fund cre-

ated by John Thornton, found-

er of the Texas Tribune, and

Elizabeth Green, cofounder of

Chalkbeat. Together they have

secured $42 million in com-

mitments from some of the

leading funders in journalism,

many of the same ones behind

ProPublica. These include the

Knight Foundation, Laurene

Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collec-

tive, Arnold Ventures, Craig

Newmark Philanthropies, and

industry giant Facebook,

through its Journalism Project.

These funders are supporting

this new nonprofit venture in

finding solutions to reinvigo-

rate local news that are scal-

able and building an ecosystem

ofsocialenterprisesfornews.

The premise is built on the be-

lief that local journalism is a

public good and therefore a

nonprofit enterprise that

should be focused on civic

news. The question is: Will this

funding be used for editorial or

for digital transformation?

This summer, “civic news

organizations,” as the Ameri-

can Journalism Project calls

them, will be selected to bene-

fit from the funding collective.

Poynter reports that this group

of newsrooms will include a

few startups, with a preference

for nonprofits, but most recipi-

ents will have already launched

in their local communities as

nascent yet sustainable ven-

tures. “The objective is to cre-

ate much more high-impact,

‘mission-driven’ reporting on

state and local governance; the

grants will be for ‘revenue rais-

ing and tech capacity,’ ” Thorn-

ton told Poynter.

The hope is that philan-

thropic capital will bolster a

movement of civic newsrooms.

The Knight Foundation has

long donated to news nonprof-

it startups and is committing

almost half of the funds, an-

nouncing a $20 million, five-

year commitment. The target

is to fund 35 civic news organi-

zations and newsrooms over

the five years.

Two revenue paths have di-

verged in local news: dona-

tions or digital subscriptions.

As a result, we see for-profits

like the major dailies and na-

tional magazines doubling

down on transforming into

digital juggernauts that can

compete on those platforms in

delivery and win back sub-

scribers. We also see upstarts

and legacies converting into a

nonprofit for public good,

where donors keep the news-

room afloat. Either way, an in-

dependent press is the only

way to keep misinformation at

bay and democracy alive. Let’s

hope more mobilizers and

funders join the effort.

Heidi Legg is director of special

projects at the Shorenstein

Center on Media, Politics and

Public Policy at the Harvard

Kennedy School. She

previously founded The

Editorial, a local digital news

startup in Cambridge.

ILLUSTRATION BY LESLEY BECKER/GLOBE STAFF; ADOBE

InboxInbox

Theguncontrolbattle

isnotover

Letters should be written exclusively to the Globe and

include name, address, and daytime telephone number.

They should be 200 words or fewer. All are subject to

editing. Letters to the Editor, The Boston Globe, 1 Exchange

Pl, Ste 201, Boston, MA 02109-2132; [email protected]

For starters, we can block access

to killing machines

It has been just a couple days since the devastating mur-

ders in El Paso and Dayton, and there goes Globe columnist

Jeff Jacoby (“No, expanded background checks wouldn’t

prevent mass shootings,” Aug. 7) arguing about the futility

of legislation that can prevent future such atrocities.

Let me make a suggestion — and I do this as a lifetime

gun owner.

The Dayton gunman’s rifle, according to police reports,

fired bullets into the bodies of more than 20 innocent vic-

tims, nine of them fatally, within a span of a mere 30 sec-

onds. Can anyone in their right mind justify public owner-

ship of an instrument like that?

The time to control sale of such lethal weapons is now.

Assault rifles are not toys for big boys. They are designed

for a single purpose: killing human beings by shattering

their bodies. They need to be kept in the same place as ma-

chine guns, howitzers, and nuclear bombs: out of reach of

the general public. Perhaps this is where we can begin

proving that sensible laws are capable of preventing these

deplorable killings.

MARK HOPKINS

Concord

We can’t declare

gun control pointless

Whether background checks deter mass murder is debat-

able, and those debates go on, but at least Jeff Jacoby cites

evidence to support his claim that it does not.

However, his claim that no gun control measures can

make a difference simply does not follow. Certainly the re-

moval from the market of semiautomatic weapons and am-

munition clips of more than four rounds could make a dif-

ference. I believe that it would, and there is evidence to

support that belief. But I don’t conclusively know one way

or the other. And neither does Jacoby.

RICK SCHRENKER

North Reading

Not so hard to think outside the box

Jeff Jacoby’s conclusion, “If there were ‘common sense’ gun

regulation that could unfailingly foil mass shootings, we

would have adopted it long ago,” indicates that he should

get out more — perhaps to Japan, Greece, Canada, Spain,

Ireland, Australia, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Nor-

way, or Britain.

EMILIE DIMENTO

Winthrop

Whatever you do,

don’t call Trump a populist

In “Trump’s crazy tariffs have outfoxed the Fed” (Opinion,

Aug. 7), Niall Ferguson explains how the Trump adminis-

tration has managed to manipulate the Federal Reserve

and its interest rate decisions. Ferguson attributes this trick

to President Donald Trump, who never has shown much

acumen about the workings of the Fed. Instead, I would

claim that loyal Cabinet members Steve Mnuchin and Wil-

bur Ross most likely have hatched this scheme for Trump

to articulate.

Ferguson also uses the phrase “populists in power,” a

gross mischaracterization of the Trump government. Dur-

ing the 2016 campaign, Trump walked and talked like a

populist to con gullible voters, but the first 928 days, and

counting, of his presidency have shown mostly actions in

favor of megacorporations, oligopoly, and kleptocracy.

BEN MYERS

Harvard

Don’t confuse political drama

for economics

You’d think the so-called dismal science would escape the

reality TV-style framing of our politics. But a little mone-

tary policy knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Niall Ferguson (“Trump’s crazy tariffs have outfoxed the

Fed”) sees elements of a political game between the presi-

dent and the Fed. This is misleading and deepens a blind

spot in our civic understanding. If the Fed loosens policy in

a time of above-target inflation expectations, talk to us

then. Please don’t confuse political drama for economics.

We need less reality TV and more reality.

JOSH DODD

Franklin

Regarding the inefficiencies at the Registry of Motor Vehi-

cles regarding alerts on law-breaking drivers, the comment

by Governor Baker was, if not disingenuous, then certainly

disappointing (“Registry lapses were surprise, Baker says,”

Page A1, Aug. 1). Stating that he was unaware of the back-

log puts part of the blame squarely on him and his staff. It

would seem to me that the governor should be holding a

regular meeting with department heads and that this par-

ticular matter should have been called to his attention a

few years ago. In a situation such as this, not knowing is in-

excusable, and Baker should be held accountable.

PAUL MENDELSON

Newburyport

Bakershouldnothavebeen

outofthelooponRMVlapses

I

f you believed Christine Blasey Ford, “Justice on Trial”

won’t change your mind. It didn’t change mine.

But if you want to know how conservatives think, fight,

and win, it’s a must-read.

Authors Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino dra-

matically detail the nomination and confirmation of Brett Ka-

vanaugh to the Supreme Court, and the unsuccessful effort by

Democrats to use Ford’s accusation of sexual assault to stop it. The

book forces readers to consider the ferocity of partisan politics and

the human consequences. It also raises legitimate questions about

the #MeToo movement, and the commitment to believing victims,

no matter how fuzzy their memories, versus the rights of the ac-

cused to due process and presumption of innocence.

It won’t change any minds on that score, either. But it’s still

worth reading.

Above all, “Justice on Trial” is a lesson in how different things

look, depending on your ideology. When Kavanaugh testified, I

saw a privileged white man mad enough to cry at the prospect of

losing a coveted seat on the high court to a girl who wasn’t part of

his Georgetown Prep social circle. Kavanaugh supporters — most

notably, President Trump — saw a nominee locked, loaded, and

ready to fight to the death for his nomination.

Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a high

school party decades ago, a charge that went from anonymous let-

ter to riveting public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Com-

mittee. Even the authors seem inclined to believe someone as-

saulted her at some point in her life. But Ford couldn’t recall the

exact time or place of the alleged attack. No witness could corrobo-

rate her account, and Kavanaugh passionately denied it. The book

argues that there was never enough evidence to credibly accuse

Kavanaugh as the assailant and that, aided by a friendly media,

Democrats slimed a good man they were determined to destroy.

To that end, the authors defend Kavanaugh’s teenage honor to

the hilt, dismissing well-documented stories of a high school cul-

ture that celebrated drinking and partying. It also traffics in specu-

lation about Ford, suggesting she, too, was a heavy drinker with a

salacious high school past — as if that excuses any assault she may

have endured.

For liberals, much of the book is like looking into a fun house

mirror. Everything is upside down and distorted. For example, Mela-

nia Trump telling her husband “You know that woman is lying, don’t

you?” (after Blasey Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Com-

mittee) isn’t a Stephen Colbert joke. It’s presented as a deep revela-

tion, “held by millions of other women and men who were silenced in

media discussions that day.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is not an

over-the-top Kavanaugh shill but a “volcano of indignation,” and the

engineer of an electric moment — “This is not a job interview. This is

hell” — that helped turn the tide for Kavanaugh. By the same light,

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine did not betray women by

supporting Kavanaugh; she withstood immense pressure from nasty

protesters and stood up for principle.

But the authors do make some valid points about discrepancies in

Ford’s story, which were drawn out by Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona

prosecutor whose questioning of Ford at the Senate hearing was

mocked by the media. And they also raise legitimate questions about

much-touted reports of other alleged sexual misconduct by Ka-

vanaugh. A Yale classmate recounted a story of a man who might have

been Kavanaugh exposing himself to her. Michael Avenatti, the lawyer

who once represented Stormy Daniels, who had an affair with Trump,

also put forward a woman who made gang-rape charges against

Kavanaugh.

What the media saw as a pattern, Kavanaugh and his supporters

saw as desperation, and reason to fight. They did, and won.

Kavanaugh opponents aren’t giving up. Now House Democrats are

asking the National Archives to release records relating to Ka-

vanaugh’s time in George W. Bush’s White House.

Sorry, that’s a lost cause. Read “Justice on Trial,” and get ready for

the next big battle.

Joan Vennochi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on

Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.

JOANVENNOCHI

‘Justice on Trial’

and the lessons

of the Kavanaugh

nomination

ILLUSTRATIONS BY LESLEY BECKER/GLOBE STAFF; ADOBE

Atughere,ashovethere

—TrumpandtheFed