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Factually! with Adam Conover

How Capitalism Murdered Journalism with Margot Susca

May 29, 2024
Adam Conover discusses with Margot Susca, a professor at American University, how private equity firms have dismantled journalism, leading to a decline in investigative reporting, loss of accountability, and conflicts of interest. They explore the detrimental impact of capitalism on journalism, emphasizing the urgent need for public awareness and regulatory guardrails to address the crisis.
58:53

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Private equity firms dismantle journalism for profit, leading to reduced accountability reporting.
  • Lack of journalistic resources results in decreased coverage of critical issues in local news.

Deep dives

The Decline of Local News and the Role of Private Equity

Private equity firms have deliberately targeted and decimated local newspapers by buying them as financial assets to extract as much money as possible, leading to a significant decrease in investigative reporting and accountability journalism. Not just a natural result of increased competition, the decline of local news is a calculated effort by wealthy entities to dismantle the newspaper industry, with private equity ownership rising significantly over the years.

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