For and against New York’s local journalism bill

There’s rarely a day without news about a local publication shutting its doors. To counter this, two New York state lawmakers are proposing a requirement that any cable company operating in New York offer a local news channel with “news, weather and public affairs programming,” according to a draft of the bill, reports the New York Times.

According to NY Times, if the proposed bill is passed it would be the first of its kind in the country. However, various other efforts have been going around to tackle this problem. For example, New Jersey’s governor, Philip D. Murphy, approved up to $2 million in state funds to support community journalism, making New Jersey the first state to allocate money to the local news landscape, despite concerns about media independence.

But New York’s bill would be perhaps the most aggressive attempt by government officials to sustain local news in the long term, says the NY Times.

“These companies don’t listen when it comes to us encouraging them to keep local programming,” said State Senator Kevin Thomas, a Democrat, one of the bill’s sponsors. “So there comes a time when the Legislature has to tell them. Leaving them to self-regulate, they do things for their own profit-making schemes.”

Under the law, New York’s Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities including cable, water and natural gas, would decide what qualified as local news. It would also dictate how long and how often each channel was required to show it; smaller companies could have less stringent requirements, said Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, the bill’s other sponsor.

However, not everyone is in favor of the bill, reports the New York Post.

“Requiring a cable company to run and staff a local news operation is a pretty audacious request,” notes Jerry Ellig, a former chief economist at the Federal Communications Commission. Original content is expensive — that’s why TV “news” has long relied on newspapers to do the most actual reporting.

According to The Post, lawmakers should understand the business before trying to help. Journalism is supposed to keep the powerful, state officials included not march to their orders.