Years after the death of its newspaper, Richmond's primary source of local news is a website funded by Chevron, the oil giant whose refinery looms over the city's horizon.

The issue of California’s growing news deserts — and the fallout on civic engagement — has become a heated topic in the state Legislature, where Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) is pushing a measure, Assembly Bill 886, that would require leading social media platforms and search engines to pay news outlets for accessing their articles, either through a predetermined fee or through an amount set by arbitration. Publishers would have to use 70% of those funds to pay journalists in California. Lawmakers are also considering state Senate Bill 1327, which would tax large tech platforms for the data they collect from users and pump the money into news organizations by giving them a tax credit for employing full-time journalists.

In this news desert, the main information source has been the Richmond Standard, a news website funded by Chevron, Richmond’s largest employer. It offers reports on youth sports, crime logs and things to do in town. Recent articles have highlighted a mural project, a car caravan supporting racial justice and upcoming closures to Interstate 80.

  • @pelespiritOPMEnglish
    1•2 months ago

    I have looked at every pub you mentioned every week day and post articles I find not shitty and focused on the elements. I don’t think I’ve ever posted from NYT, maybe once. Wall Street Journal? Nope. My opinion is that all except for a couple cross the line into bias most of the time. Choosing the best shit out of the shit pile is a hard job that I don’t think we should have to have. We need the fairness doctrine back.

    I honestly don’t know anything about any of them, except Rupert Murdoch, who actually recently stepped down as Chairman.

    Wow, you just happened to know that little part, eh? Except you’re not mentioning that the now CEO Is more of the same and Murdoch still owns it:

    Almar has an extensive track record of building successful news media businesses in the digital age. He oversaw the creation of the Barron’s Group, quadrupling the group’s digital audience at Barron’s and MarketWatch, and led the highly-successful modernization of The Wall Street Journal’s website during the global financial crisis, setting the stage for the Journal’s first million digital subscriptions. Almar also led the development of The Wall Street Journal in Japan, Korea and China.

    Source

    Not having any fun anymore. Bye.

    • @sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
      1•2 months ago

      cross the line into bias

      I don’t mind bias, as long as it’s easy to notice. That’s what multiple sources are for. People are really bad at removing their own biases, so I’d much rather they provide quality sources instead of trying to self-correct. It’s easy enough to check a site with an opposite bias and drill down into any details that differ.

      For example, if one side says Trump is leading the polls and the other says Harris is, I’ll check the sources for their poll numbers and decide which I trust more. I find the analysis more interesting (i.e. what are Trump and Harris planning to do about it) than the numbers themselves, especially at this point in the race.

      you’re not mentioning that the now CEO

      I don’t know anything about the new CEO. I just know Murdoch stepped down.

      I try to avoid assumptions that the owner is directly involved in journalistic processes without proof. WAPO is pretty well trusted, and if they make obviously misleading articles, they’ll lose a lot of subscribers, whereas people just expect that BS from Fox News since most of their content is entertainment BS anyway. WAPO is a good counter to NYT, and I generally look at one international news org for anything I read from either.

      Not having any fun anymore. Bye.

      Fair. Thanks for all the articles you post. 😀