Corporations and MBA geniuses realized in the 1980s and 1990s that the journalism biz was a great way to make a killing. Profit margins were amazing.

Most journalism outfits back then had longtime owners who were based in their communities and cared about local issues. 1/

Corps started buying up local newspapers and TV stations all over the country, and at first they didn't change a lot. But Wall Street dictates that the next quarter's profits be greater than this quarter's, right? And in a mature industry, as news was then, that meant cuts. 2/

Of course even the corporations have SOME idea of what makes news valuable, so they didn't want to cut too many bodies. Nothing impacts the bottom line, though, like cutting the most experienced journalists, the ones with the fattest salaries. So out they went. 3/

Eventually, the loss of those senior journalists starts to hurt the product. You goosed the numbers for a quarter or a year based on the salary savings, but now subscription and ad revenues are down. So you send a corporate hatchet man to run the local newspaper or TV station. 4/

The hatchet man has no love for local news, nor the community being covered. He's all about the spreadsheet. He needs the profits going in the right direction so he can get promoted to the home office, maybe earn himself a C-level title someday. So he cuts more. 5/

At this point, the quality journalists who remain can see where this is leading. They unionize, or they try to make life difficult for the hatchet man, not only for themselves but for the sake of their towns. They see that corporate profits are up even as resources evaporate. 6/

Good journalists are difficult people. They ask hard, probing, perceptive questions. They don't care when you say "that's all I have to say," they'll keep asking. A high quality newsroom is unruly, chaotic, messy and absolutely essential to a good democracy. 7/

Corporate hatchet men soon come to realize that they despise good journalists. They won't just do as they're told silently, like the typical office drone. They don't accept BS. They don't care about the corporation's bottom line. They care about their town's wellbeing. 8/

But bad journalists? Corporate hatchet men love bad journalists. They believe what they're told, lacking that skeptical quality that journalists need. When instructed to abandon the city council beat and cover spelling bees instead, they don't mind. It's easier work anyway. 9/

So when even more cuts come, because the corporation never put together a coherent plan to address online news, the remaining good journalists get the axe. Now your local paper or TV station sucks. Local government is free to misbehave as it sees fit. 10/

Local news was our connection to local government. We don't have time to go to city council meetings, school board meetings, etc. But the news told us what was happening, kept us informed, and made us better voters. That doesn't happen anymore, all across the U.S. 11/

In the absence of watchdog journalism, a generation of politicians has emerged who are unused to the idea of oversight. Sure, there were always corrupt politicians. There were always news deserts. But now we have major metros that are de facto news deserts 12/

Meanwhile, all those little newspapers and TV stations that are bereft of serious talent can no longer serve as proving grounds for the future stars of network TV news and major metro newspapers. So even big, national media outlets are seeing their quality decline. 13/

Our nationwide network of watchdogs has atrophied to the point of uselessness, while those they were supposed to be watching are emboldened more than ever to act with impunity.

It's not the whole story, but this is a major element in the decline of American democracy. 14/14