Why are news organizations critical? Consider John 8:44, QAnon, Satan, lies | Opinion

Unless you are, or know someone, directly involved in journalism, you may not realize the present state of affairs.

Newspapers are closing at a rate of about two per week in the United States. A recent Northwestern University study predicts that in three years, a third of newspapers will be lost.

So what? Quite a bit, actually.

As Northwestern’s Penny Abernathy writes, “The loss of local journalism has been accompanied by the malignant spread of misinformation and disinformation, political polarization, eroding trust in media, and a yawning digital and economic divide among citizens. In communities without a credible source of local news, voter participation declines, corruption in both government and business increases, and local residents end up paying more in taxes and at checkout.”

Reporters attend press conferences and civic meetings most citizens cannot or do not. Fewer reporters means fewer opportunities for accountability. If no one’s watching the hen house, how long before the fox shows up? (No reference to a particular news network intended.)

One of the most egregious results of a decline in local reporting is the atmosphere it creates. Aristotle proposed that “Nature abhors a vacuum” — easily seen when looking at what passes for “news” today on the internet and social media.

Some of the most far-fetched (but still believed) information comes from a person who remains anonymous — the infamous Q of the QAnon movement.

The Associated Press has strict rules for quoting anonymous sources and rightly so. Without knowing who has said what, “facts” are impossible to corroborate. It could be anyone saying anything, for any purpose. Anonymous sources may only be used, with permission from editors, in these circumstances:

• The material is information and not opinion or speculation, and is vital to the report.

• The information is not available except under the conditions of anonymity imposed by the source.

• The source is reliable, and in a position to have direct knowledge of the information.