For every journalist in America, there are six public relations professionals. That’s according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Think about that for a second. Why do I bring this up? Well, it’s because fewer journalists means less coverage of the important news. And why does that matter? When we don’t have journalists reporting stories, we have public relations professionals creating “narratives” for the government agencies, corporations and politicians. And why is that bad? When you are getting paid to create a narrative, you aren’t always telling the entire truth. And there’s a difference between journalism and content.

So there was a viral tweet this week by reporter Bethany Bruner, where she says “I was the ONLY reporter in the courtroom this morning as the man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl, impregnating her, leading to an abortion in Indiana, was arraigned.”

She’s a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch, a Gannet-owned newspaper.

Why is she the only reporter in a courtroom reporting on news of this magnitude? It’s because newspapers have been downsizing for two decades now and the number of reporters at local newspapers has plummeted.

You see, journalism doesn’t pay well. In case you haven’t heard. Certainly, the reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times and other large newspapers are doing OK, although they are probably still underpaid for the amount of quality work they do. Most reporters in America are paid pennies on the dollar for what they are worth.

Check out the latest podcast with Josh Molina, where he goes solo this time talking about the importance of journalism, and why new need more newsroom diversity.

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Josh Molina has been a journalist in Santa Barbara for 20 years. He also covered City Hall for the San Jose Mercury News. In addition to working as a reporter at Noozhawk, he teaches journalism at Cal State University, Northridge and Santa Barbara City College. Please subscribe to his You Tube channel for more original content, including interviews, conversations, and talk about the state of the media locally and the nation.