The starting point for this week's Shop Talk discussion is a plan proposed by Bernie Sanders, who is running for the Democratic Party nomination for president. In an opinion piece for Columbia Journalism Review, Sanders wrote that journalism is under assault from Wall Street, billionaire businessmen, Silicon Valley, and Donald Trump.
He said these attacks have created a crisis and that the nation must take concrete action.
Sanders goes on to say they if he is elected, his administration will put in place policies that will reform the media industry and better protect independent journalism at both the local and national levels.
The Shop Talk panelists find it unusual to see such a piece penned by a presidential hopeful. They wonder what it says about the current political climate that a candidate feels compelled to put forth a plan to protect journalism.
Shop Talk is a weekly panel discussion about journalism issues. This week’s program featured Will Buss, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University and advises the student editors at the Western Courier, the students at student radio station The Dog, and the WIU chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists; Rajvee Subramanian, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University; and TSPR News Director Rich Egger.
