Campaign donations totaling more than $1 million received by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) from companies and individuals involved in traditional and social media are raising eyebrows in light of his support for the Local Journalism Sustainability Act.
According to OpenSecrets.org, Kelly has raised $99.8 million, of which $1.1 million is listed as coming from the printing and publishing industry. And overall, Kelly’s campaign reported more than 83 percent of all donations were paid out for “media” expenditures.
The Local Journalism Sustainability Act, introduced last month by Kelly and two other Democrat senators, would provide tax credits to subscribers and advertisers, as well as to news outlets who hire more journalists to work for local newspapers, digital publications, television and radio.
“Local newspapers, radio stations and TV stations are pillars of our community, bringing Arizonans trusted local news, information about community events and the latest on public health updates in their area,” Kelly said. “By providing tax credits for individuals to support local news outlets, they can continue to provide important coverage for Arizona readers, listeners and viewers.”
But while Kelly promotes the value of “local” news outlets, he failed to address the fact many of those outlets are actually controlled by powerful, out-of-state corporations that own multiple outlets across various platforms. And several of those companies provide limited local news coverage, relying instead of content repeated in several company-owned outlets.
That, according to critics, means truly local, independent news providers will continue to be pressured out of business due to scale of economy.
So why is Kelly pushing a Local Journalism Sustainability Act when it isn’t truly protecting local news outlets? One answer might be found in his campaign records, which show contributions from companies such as Facebook, Verizon Communications, Comcast Corp., AT&T Inc., Apple Inc., and Microsoft Corp. Not to mention, Google parent company Alphabet Inc., one of Kelly’s biggest donors.
Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are Kelly’s cosponsors. A similar bipartisan House version of the Local Journalism Sustainability Act was introduced in June by Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA).
The Act features three types of tax credits, including one for those who subscribe to local newspapers or donate to local nonprofit news. Another feature provides advertisers with local news outlets to benefit from up to $5,000 in tax credits. The third feature of the Act provides a retention and hiring credit to local news outlets of up to $25,000 per journalist in first year and up to $15,000 in subsequent four years.