The Value of Reporting
By As most of you will have heard, the American Prospect — a magazine I’ve written for since 2005 — is in severe danger of ceasing publication. Since this was announced early last month, there has been a remarkable outpouring of support, much of it from individual readers, for which I think I can safely say everybody at The Prospect is grateful. Obviously, if you can afford a contribution or know any rich people, it’s not too late.
What hopefully will not be the last print issue of the Prospect focuses on an issue that, nearly fifty years after Lyndon Johnson’s first State of the Union address, still gets far too little attention from the media: poverty. The centerpiece is Monica Potts’s superb article, based on nearly three months worth of on-the-ground reporting, about economic conditions in southeastern Kentucky. This is the kind of work that is becoming increasingly scarce as the economic conditions of journalism change, but I hope you’ll agree with me that it’s worth preserving.