Dae Shik Kim Jr. on challenges facing local media
A few years ago, KOMO News anchor Eric Johnson produced the documentary series “Seattle Is Dying,” about a sense of loss that middle-class residents felt when they witnessed the misery of the ever-worsening housing crisis. The series became a viral hit, cementing the city’s reputation among an entire generation of TV news-watching audiences. “Seattle is Dying” encapsulated the prevailing attitude of frustration over homelessness in cities across the country. However, the series lacked any rigorous explanation of how the city got to this point and relied heavily on voyeuristic shots of homeless people in crisis for shock value. It also failed to emphasize who was actually dying (i.e., unhoused Seattleites, not middle-class suburbanites).
What explains the production of such a dehumanizing and rudimentary piece of media? Let us postulate a new thesis about what is actually going on: “Seattle journalism is dying.” Since the Great Recession, we’ve seen a number of local news outlets shutter: the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 2009, City Arts Magazine in 2018, Seattle Weekly in 2019 and the Seattle Globalist in 2020. Grassroots publications have been hit the hardest, but national news enterprises like VICE, Jezebel and Buzzfeed News have also gone under. The lack of material support for high quality journalism created a vacuum for billionaire-backed, right-wing media operations like Sinclair-owned KOMO, Fox News or The Daily Wire.
On the front lines of the battle to preserve progressive media in Seattle has been longtime community organizer and journalist Dae Shik Kim Jr. Kim has helped run political campaigns, written for local and national publications and co-hosted multiple podcasts about Seattle activism and baseball. Like hundreds of other journalists, he was directly affected by VICE’s recent bankruptcy, where he is a writer and producer. Throughout his career, Kim has stridently advocated for progressive voices to be platformed, even when it isn’t popular.
Kim talked to Real Change about the importance of grassroots journalism and how material support is at the center of sustaining it. This message comes during our organization’s annual Winter Fund Drive. Real Change needs to raise $212,590 by the end of the year to fill a budget gap. Our newspaper is not alone — these financial woes are industrywide. Now more than ever, we must unite to save independent media in Seattle and around the world.
Real Change: How did you first start working in journalism? What motivated you to do that type of media work?
Dae Shik Kim Jr.: Back home [in Hawai‘i], it was always something I was interested in because I always felt like a lot of the stories of the margins weren’t properly told. Even back home with local media, a lot of communities that are underrepresented did not have a proper voice. I wanted to be part of that type of storytelling and advocacy. I think a lot of people view the type of journalism I do as advocacy journalism, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it that. I would call it a type of journalism that fills the gap that I think the overall corporate journalism has been missing for a very long time.
What keeps you going in journalism?
I’m gonna be honest — it gets harder to keep going every year. I think we’re seeing that now with the beast that corporate journalism is. On one hand, you have all these publications shutting down because of corporate mismanagement, publications that got me into journalism just shutting down, and you have writers being forced to stay silent on issues and losing their jobs [for] speaking out about certain things. So I think it’s been pretty tough, but it’s something that, in my opinion, journalists who have covered these types of issues — human rights issues — have faced since the beginning. And it’s getting a little harder because those homes where journalists like that tend to land are disappearing. So I think the need for grassroots, more independent journalism is greater than ever.
What do you think about the state of journalism specifically in Seattle?
I think in Seattle it’s tough because you have one really big publication, The Seattle Times, that kind of hoards all the editorial power in the city. Five to 10 years ago, you had a lot more options. You had The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, the [Seattle] P-I. Fast forward to 2023, the Seattle Times is kind of the big paper. And I think even more so [with] places like Real Change, the South Seattle Emerald, it’s more important than ever to really lift up the voices of these smaller publications because they’re the ones on the ground. They’re the ones covering the things that, if I’m being honest, other journalists aren’t even allowed to cover. So, without places like Real Change, I don’t think the public would really know [about] the aftermath of things like encampment sweeps or our housing crisis. Those will just be painted by one corporate voice, and because of publications like Real Change, we’re able to see a different side of the city that we wouldn’t normally be able to see. It’s really dangerous when journalism is monopolized, and I think that’s a threat we’re facing right now.
Why do you think corporate news outlets have such a different voice than grassroots and independent media?
Some of our corporate news [outlets are] owned by entities like Sinclair [Broadcast Group], for example, and when the money coming in [from them] is controlling what you’re allowed to put out there, it gets really dangerous. I would hate to continue in a world where you have publications like The Washington Post getting bought up by billionaires like Jeff Bezos, and now they’re not allowed to call out corporate greed as much as they normally would. It’s a very scary dystopian reality that we’re right up against, and Seattle is home to a lot of those upper top 1% of folks. I could definitely see a scenario where these billionaires end up owning all of the media in a city like Seattle, and then we’re just in a weird place where we see the wealth gap continue to increase but the coverage on that is going to be favoring the wealthy elite. I think we’re seeing that bleed into our local hyperlocal politics a little bit for sure [because] publications have a huge hand in helping get folks elected. We just finished a local election that determined the seats of seven [Seattle] City Council positions, and a lot of those folks who got in were backed by corporate media, and that’s going to have repercussions in our community for years to come.
What role do grassroots and independent media outlets play in shaping Seattle’s media landscape?
I truly believe ... support[ing] grassroots local journalism is more important than ever. Especially in a city like Seattle, where the wealth gap is only continuing to grow, as we see elections shifting a little bit further to the right. And a lot of that is due to corporate media and the narrative that they’re putting out there in the communities. So, the louder the voices of true advocates and folks on the ground who care about those on the margins that are impacted through the affordability crisis in a city like Seattle — the more we empower them, the more we can help balance out the stories we’re seeing out there. Not only do I want to see the staff [at Real Change] retain their jobs and continue to do the good work that we’re doing, I’m hoping to see the newsroom grow as well. We need Real Change. We need counter narratives to the shitty coverage happening outside of this place.
How can we pull resources together to fund local media like Real Change?
I think it’s really important for individuals, especially those who have the means, to support a place like Real Change. I wish, individually, I’d be able to write a lot more for local publications and put my voice out there, but we need to also make a livable wage to stay in the city as prices continue to skyrocket. And I’m hoping more people can see the importance of a place like Real Change — to donate more. You know, Netflix is getting a little expensive — it’s like 19 bucks now or something like that. And I think even like $10 to $15 a month to a place of Real Change, I think you’ll see the impact a lot more. […] I can’t think of a time where I walk outside in the city and I don’t see a vendor selling a Real Change newspaper. I know it does a lot for our communities out there, especially our unhoused communities.
Real Change sustaining, surviving and thriving is very, very important to Seattle. There’s very, very few places like that. There’s over 100 vendors [who] make a living selling the paper, and I would hate to see that go away. I’m hoping that with the holidays coming up, people realize that if we don’t help keep these places alive, the misinformation is only going to continue. And we’re only going to get the fear mongering type of coverage that we’re already seeing.
Is there anything else that people can do to help elevate progressive media?
I would say let folks, whether it’s your parents or your neighbors, know there are other options to get news.
Dominique Morales contributed to the reporting.
Read more of the Dec. 6–12, 2023 issue.