Clay News & Views Co-Founder Josh Allen recently sat down with Tracy Rigdon and Jim Alabiso on their podcast, One World with Tracy and Jim, for a wide-ranging conversation about independent journalism, local news, and what happens to a community when nobody consistently watches the decisions that shape it.
Tracy and Jim approach politics from a different place than Josh does, and that was kind of the point — this was a conversation about whether people with different views can still agree that facts matter and that public officials should be held accountable.
They got into a lot: Clay County as a “news desert,” the pressures and pushback that come with covering a small community, and one of journalism’s most uncomfortable subjects — bias.
Allen doesn’t buy the idea that reporters approach stories with a blank slate, free of experience, belief, or blind spots.
CN&V was built around the opposite idea: separate the news from the views, but don’t pretend the views aren’t there. Say them out loud instead of hiding them.
They also talked about the gap between demanding accountability and actually showing up for it — attending meetings, filing records requests, doing the unglamorous work that keeps a community informed.
Josh. Learn to swim. You won’t float. Do it for your daughter. My brother was an Air Force survival instructor, and drowned in six inches of water at age 52. Please. Learn for your family.