The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday announced another round of layoffs in its newsroom. 15 more journalists are being cut, including Ed Fletcher who announced his layoff on a Facebook Live Feed.

“It’s a big hit. It’s a sad day for the news industry,” Fletcher said. “If you haven’t been paying attention, it’s a bad time for the news industry.”

The Sacramento Bee states “[t]he object of this newspaper is not only independence, but permanence.” With the changing times, local newspapers such as The Bee have been struggling against the alleged fake news circling the internet. Mistrust directed towards journalists is a fatal flaw that leaves news companies struggling to maintain readers and support.

Having journalists is key to promoting independent reporting of national and international news. It is even encoded into our 1st Amendment rights to have freedom of the press to report.

The Annual Mike Belote Endowed Capital Lecture held earlier this year addressed these struggles and the importance of independent journalists in our current political atmosphere. If you haven’t already seen it, please enjoy the timely expert panel.