Civil Weekly Newsletter: 2/22/2019 Edition
Hello, and welcome to the new Civil Weekly!
My name is Megan Libby and I lead community at Civil. Civil’s launch is just around the corner — and we want this newsletter to evolve accordingly. While we’ll continue to feature some of the great journalism being produced daily from Civil newsrooms, we’re also going to spend more time featuring the minds and stories behind these newsrooms, as well as information on how to directly support some of the most important and pressing journalism issues out there.
I’m excited to be working more closely with all of you as we build the Civil community. If you have ideas for what you’d like to see more of in this newsletter, feel free to drop me a line here.
Why I Joined Civil: ecoWURD
EcoWURD was founded by journalists at WURD, the only African American-owned talk radio station in Philadelphia. This Civil newsroom focuses on environmental challenges that disproportionately affect communities of color in Philadelphia.
This week, we asked reporters at ecoWURD, “Why did you join Civil?”
Civil’s commitment to community-based journalism aligned with our commitment to and years of action as a community/grassroots-driven media outlet. That intrigued and inspired us, and we felt this partnership could offer us the kind of insight and resources we needed to create something fresh and impactful!
We were interested about the importance of journalism to establish trust in underrepresented communities — and how you can help support their important work. Read ecoWURD’s full interview here.
Or, for a more regular dose of what they’re publishing, follow ecoWURD on Twitter.
Stories that need telling: What Civil Newsrooms covered this week.
- Chicago’s signature “two-flat” apartments — two-story buildings with an apartment unit on each floor, usually with bay window towards the street — have historically been shared by the city’s working class families. Now, the buildings are in distress as they’re being converted to single-family homes. Read the story in Block Club Chicago.
- China, which has a geographical area nearly identical to the United States, has 18,000 miles of high-speed rail lines. France’s high-speed railroads have cost fractions of what is projected for comparable areas in the United States. Yet why is the cost of high speed rail seemingly impossible in California? Hmm Daily has answers.
- From California to New York, state regulators, health authorities and the FDA are pushing back against using cannabidiol (CBD) in food or drinks, reports Cannabis Wire. Read about the discussions happening across the U.S.
- “So as we think about the future, what’s our role? How can we help people connect with nature in a different way?” John Ingold at the Colorado Sun answers why Denver Zoo’s new CEO thinks the zoo of the future will have fewer animals.
- In the most recent episode of FAQ NYC, New York City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer explains why he isn’t interested in negotiating with Amazon — and we hear from community organizers who also oppose the tech giant’s HQ2.
- What do Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Donors Trust, Schwab Charitable Fund and Vangard Charitable have in common? Sludge found that together, these funds disbursed $11 million over 3 years to 34 hate groups in the U.S.
- Earlier this week, the Knight Foundation made a $5 million commitment to address crises in local news. Read the good news for local news in The GroundTruth Project.
- Ben Affleck, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande and others have all been described in the media as having “demons” as they battle with addiction. The Small Bow has a problem with that, because demons aren’t real. But alcohol dependency, human struggles, mental illness and depression are real.
- A New York City produce seller pursued a tax loophole by declaring tomatoes were fruits in 1893. He didn’t win his case. Popula explains how “wort” became “vegetables,” which don’t exist.
Civil en Español
- Terrorismo, contaminación y tala amenazan la riqueza natural de Colombia. Lea más en 14ymedio.
For a daily feed from Civil Newsrooms, follow @CivilStories on Twitter.
#HoldTheLine with Maria Ressa
ICYMI: here’s Civil Foundation CEO Vivian Schiller’s interview with Maria Ressa, who was arrested by her government on cyber libel charges last week.
This week, we’re encouraging you to fight for press freedom by contributing to Maria Ressa and Rappler’s legal fight against the repressive Dutuerte regime. Every little bit counts! Contribute here.
Quote of the Week
“Hilde is a force of nature. One can only imagine what sort of stories she will be turning out once she has a driver’s license.”
— Antonia Noori Farzan, Washington Post, “An Arizona cop threatened to arrest a 12-year-old journalist. She wasn’t backing down.”
The (Last) Random Musing
Hi all, Matt Coolidge here. Wanted to chime in with a final Random Musing, before officially handing the keys to this newsletter over to my awesome colleague Megan going forward.
This has been a fun space to opine and share, well, random musings with you all over the past year-plus. Thanks to the many, many of you who responded to these, often challenging established assumptions and introducing me to fascinating new ideas (and weekend long reads!).
Civil is at an incredibly exciting point. The past year-and-a-half has been about making people aware of what we’re trying to build and forming the backbone of a global network of quality newsrooms.
In that spirit, it makes sense to hand this space over to the larger community. Each week, we’ll ask a Civil member to answer a series of questions from the previous week’s participant. To start things off, I’m going to tag Megan to answer these questions for next week:
1) What’s the most memorable story you’ve read in the past year?
2) When you were growing up, what was your local newspaper?
3) Why did you join Civil?
If you have any feedback about this newsletter — including what you’d like to read more about, or anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out.
