Paywall-free news coverage of ICE raids, deportation campaign aids those who need it most

The First Amendment protects five things: religion, speech, the press, assembly and petition. The press is the only private enterprise explicitly named in the Constitution — not as a commercial interest to be protected but as a democratic function to be preserved. The press made that list because an informed citizenry is a prerequisite for self-governance.

A press that informs the wealthy while leaving others in darkness is not the press the Constitution envisions. The press freedom clause is from a time when newspapers often advocated revolution. The era’s journalism was intended to reach the people, not just the ruling class.

Almost two centuries later, Judge Murray Gurfein famously said, “A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve … the right of the people to know."

The free press cannot be ubiquitous behind a paywall. A recent online event featuring the editors of Wired and 404 Media hosted by Freedom of the Press Foundation, where I’m a founding board member, previewed a better way. It turns out "unpaywalling" is good not only for democracy but for business.

It’s not going to solve all of journalism’s problems — the industry is in a rough place with outlets barely scraping by, regardless of paywalls. But whatever business model journalism settles on is sure to depend on public trust. Paywalls undermine that trust.

Two-tiered citizenry

Paywalls create a two-tiered citizenry — one that can afford to be informed and one that cannot. Those most likely to be surveilled, policed, detained and deported are least able to afford subscriptions.

During Operation Midway Blitz, the impacted communities needed basic information: What were their rights? Who had been taken? Where? Were immigration authorities lying?

Chicago is lucky. Chicago Public Media (which owns the Chicago Sun-Times), the Reader, Unraveled Press, the Triibe, Block Club Chicago and others offered excellent nonpaywalled reporting about ICE’s invasion to all Chicagoans, whether at a coffee shop in Lincoln Park or dodging white supremacist federal goons in Back of the Yards.

Otherwise, those who needed news most would be out of luck. The median household income in Brighton Park — which was heavily targeted by ICE — is under $45,000. For a family deciding between groceries and a newspaper subscription, information loses.

Hopefully, Chicagoans in a position to support nonprofit and nonpaywalled news outlets will now see their benefits more clearly, and fund them, so we retain our privileged position in a country full of news deserts.

But the next city ICE invades may not be so fortunate. The results can be perverse; those with the greatest stake in accountability journalism are systematically excluded from it.

Public records, private access

There's a particular irony when FOIA-based reporting — the kind that will expose the corruption and incompetence behind ICE’s abduction spree — ends up behind a paywall.

The federal Freedom of Information Act and its state counterparts exist because the public owns government records. We fund their creation. When a journalist files a FOIA request, fights for compliance, and finally publishes a story, it’s the product of public investment at every stage. It exists because the law recognizes our right to know.

When the story goes behind a paywall, that right becomes a privilege.

Wired and 404 — both for-profit outlets — recognized this reality and unpaywalled public records-based reporting. Katie Drummond, global editorial director of Wired (and also a Freedom of the Press Foundation board member), said Wired "made a calculated bet that our audience would show up for us," which paid off "above and beyond what I could have possibly imagined. The changes Wired made in March led to a “huge increase in subscribers."

It’s great that Wired’s announcement got attention and drove revenue. Other for-profit outlets should follow. And nonprofit outlets like those in Chicago that don’t paywall any stories, Freedom of Information Act-based or otherwise, should be similarly rewarded.

Journalism’s effectiveness often depends on reach. A scoop about corruption reaching 10,000 paying subscribers is a problem for the government to manage. One reaching a million citizens is a crisis that demands a response.

And reach begets more reach. 404 co-founder Joseph Cox said free access to the outlet’s public records reporting has led to local journalists “doing basically the same public records request, but for their own communities.”

Paywalls don’t just limit the reach of news; they create a void often filled by lies and deceit. People read and share unverified social media reports — some wildly wrong — not because they’re good, but because they’re free. And those misinformation purveyors have a vested interest in convincing their audience that real news isn’t worth paying for.

The only way to rebuild the public’s dwindling trust in the media is to show the public: "This is what we do and why we matter.”

Paywalls capture the already converted. Paywall-free news earns the trust of everyone else.  

John Cusack is an actor, director, producer and screenwriter who has appeared in more than 60 films. He's also a political activist and regularly speaks out and writes on issues of human rights, government transparency and accountability.