next week no local reporters will be covering New Jersey's Congressional Delegation in Washington D.C this after NJ Advanced Media closed its D.C Bureau and laid off long-time respected journalist Jonathan salant I spoke with Jonathan about the shrinking media landscape and what happens when the stories that should be told are not Jonathan welcome it's really a pleasure to have you on and I'm really sorry about your situation well thank you actually the pleasure is mine were you surprised to see the outpouring of support for you from most of New Jersey's Congressional Delegation after the news was out I was shocked in fact uh not just the uh not just the delegation it's Governor Murphy its former White House Press secretaries and some of the top Congressional reporters in Washington I didn't know they read my stuff and people asking how I'm doing and just I'm so in awe and so overwhelmed by this support that's made everything else secondary read your stuff I just want to point that out but you have been the only New Jersey reporter based in D.C for some time why do you think New Jersey Media companies haven't made coverage of the nation's capital a priority well the national news everybody pays attention to you can get from The New York Times in the Washington Post and the Associated Press and Reuters and Bloomberg up and on the internet and get everything now so but it's the local stuff but when it's easy we have to cut something it's easy to say well we don't see the Washington reporter uh we can cut that because we need to have somebody covering City Hall which certainly it affects more people we need to cover the state house because it affects more people directly and they make those decisions uh there are a lot of places that don't have Washington reporters anymore which is a shame uh but you can look there's loads of newspaper changes that have gone out of business and we've been bought out and they had big bureaus in Washington and they don't they're not here anymore so what's the impact on voters of having no dedicated DC reporters from New Jersey well that's somebody who's knocked down I always considered my job my job was to hold public officers accountable to the public if you're not there watching them and talking to them you can't hold them accountable all you do is know what they send out on a press release or what they put on the paid ad you're not you know you're not reading the documents you're not seeing them every day you're not talking to their colleagues who says hey did you know that your Congressman did this you you down in DC you build all these relationships with other people that work with your Congress people and are willing to talk to you about it we know the media industry has been shrinking for some time do you think it's a trend that can be reversed and you're alluding to this a little bit about the negative when traditional media takes a back seat to other forms of communication is this where we're going from this point on well I'm trying to figure out a way to put this in so I'm going to put it into this thing as accomplishment from uh California and Randy do Cunningham who went to prison for accepting bribes and kickbacks and that was uncovered by the San Diego Union Tribune Regional reporter in Washington worked for a company called Copley Copley doesn't exist anymore and that type of stuff nobody's there watching that anymore and that's and that's the problem and uh so what do you do unfortunately a lot of people are not getting you get George Santo selected that's what happens because nobody's there to vet his background what do you hope that readers took away from reading your stories all these years well democracy demands an knowledgeable electorate you can't you know there's an old New Yorker cartoon with a four-legged creature in front of a computer and it says the caption is on the internet nobody knows you're a dog and it said everything's equal you have no idea what's credible and what's not credible and I like and so you need that incredible reporters out there to give you the right information look at all the misinformation we had in 2020 and 2022. it's the trained journalists who are out there to cut through that said this is really what's happening and you have the educated elector if you don't have an educated electric how do you make a decision who to vote for I get a piece uh recently conclusive by reading by reading documents on a congress former Congressman malinowski setting up a uh a pack to help people in the these quotes we've got in the school board and somebody wrote back to me and said thank you for the newness I hate the guy now I know it's not support him anymore and I don't but the point is that's information that person is going to get there are other people on the other side saying this is the greatest thing since sliced bread thank God he's doing that but we're providing information they wouldn't get any other way to make those decisions Well you certainly have been one of the most credible reporters over the decades thank you for all the words you've written you will be missed thank you for your time today thank you very much