EDITORIAL: Journalism has no home for gatekeeping in 2025

I read a column published Friday in a local newspaper by syndicated columnist Marc Dion, essentially ranting and raving about the current state of journalism.

But before I unload on Dion’s gatekeeping column on journalism, let me quickly mention something.

When Mr. Dion references anything regarding “estates”, he refers to historical social classes or power structures. The First Estate was reserved for the clergy and men of a higher cloth in the ministry. The Second Estate refers to the nobility (royalty), the wealthy, and the oligarchs. The Third Estate is essentially comprised of commoners, ranging from peasants to the bourgeoisie. Those three estates are known as the traditional Estates of the Realm.

In the modern world, the Fourth Estate is typically associated with the news media, while the current Fifth Estate refers to outlier viewpoints and news stories that the Fourth Estate is too afraid to cover. They include bloggers, citizen journalists, and social media influencers.

In August, I officially mark 20 years in media and journalism, which began in 2005 when I worked for campus radio station KCSW-LP and the campus newspaper The Megaphone at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri.

I consider myself part of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Estates. I am a common man, but my purpose in journalism is much purer compared to the current environment in journalism, where the general public seems to embrace partisan-led propaganda over unbiased news coverage.

These two paragraphs are where I start my disagreement with him:

A citizen journalist is someone who has nothing on his/her resume except being born in America. An independent journalist is someone who can’t get a job in news. Both of them write stories that are more than half their own opinion, and both of them desperately need an editor. Their battle cry is, “They tried to silence me.”

You read their stories, and you get the feeling that they never spent any time as a reporter, covering cheap shootings, house fires in which no one was injured, traffic pile-ups and bone-crunchingly dull meetings of a suburban zoning board.

You see, Mr. Dion, that’s where you’re 100% wrong. An independent (or freelance) journalist often serves as a correspondent (or stringer) in the news industry, regardless of whether it’s in print, on television, on the radio, on social media, or elsewhere in the greater World Wide Web. We’ve worked in the industry, and we have more editorial freedom as independent journalists than those who endlessly grind with no career advancement coming their way.

You’re also incorrect on your definition of a citizen journalist. There is often a crossover between independent journalists and ciitzen journalists, especially when there’s a news desert in a given region.

An excellent example of both types of journalists is Ford Fischer and Trey Yingst, of whom I’ve known Ford for many years. Fischer and Yingst operate News2Share (see updated editorial note below), a video news production company that has filmed video coverage of breaking and popular news stories, which has been broadcast on platforms as small as local television stations to as large as corporate cable news outlets like CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation, and more.

Quick editorial note: Thanks to Ford for reaching out and setting the record straight. While Fischer and Yingst founded the business and ran it together for the first few years, Fischer has been the sole owner of News2Share since 2017, while Yingst has moved along to build a successful career as a journalist of his own, including his current stint as chief White House correspondent for Fox News.

Most of my career in journalism has been as an independent/freelance journalist.

In my personal experience, I’ve uncovered corruption in local politics, revealed injustices in a corrupt legal system, and reported on numerous murder trials, but I balanced that with a variety of positive stories that I knew the mainstream media would never cover.

As a freelance journalist, I’ve had bylines written for several local newspapers in Nokomis, Pana, Assumption, and Blue Mound, as well as a newspaper in Troy, Illinois.

Not a single story reported with any hint of bias, because that would be unethical.

The best thing about being a freelance or even a citizen journalist? You’re not having to answer to a corporate office. You don’t have to answer to advertisers (unless you royally mess up). Most of all, there no Big Government trying to bully you into reporting the news from their slanted perspective.

Who are you to gatekeep journalism?

So what if they’re bloggers, writers that publish content on platforms like Substack, citizen journalists, and independent journalists?

Many corporate-owned newspapers like Gannett’s State Journal-Register and Lee Enterprises’ Herald & Review are hardly doing their jobs anymore as it is, and their parent companies keep downsizing their newsrooms to near nonexistence.

I find it incredibly annoying when there are people trying to dictate who can and cannot be a journalist and through what means. So, just because I didn’t go to journalism school, I can’t be a journalist?

No one has the right to dictate who can or cannot be a journalist. None of the professional journalistic organizations in the U.S. agrees with your viewpoint.

Try asking any of the professional journalistic organizations about it: the Society of Professional Journalists, the Online News Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, etc. Not a single one of those organizations believes in gatekeeping in journalism.

Not in a single instance during my four stints working as an employee in local media has a single gatekeeper dictating who can or cannot be a journalist. They also didn’t try to dictate how I write my content.

Not my fault

Dion also proceeds to blame the Fifth Estate for the demise of newspapers in America.

The fewer newspapers we have in this country, the more people we have who call themselves ‘journalists.’

Contrary to your misinformed belief, the demise of over 360 newspapers since 2020 is definitely not the fault of Millennial and Gen Z journalists in the Fourth Estate, but those who also cross over into the Fifth Estate.

Blame that on the corporations deadset on cutting editorial staff to nearly nothing. Corporation-owned newspapers have significantly reduced news coverage in exchange for sponsored content. Blame the hedge funds buying out news corporations, squeezing every ounce out of them, and tossing them into the scrapyard when they’re no longer useful.

Freelance journalists and citizen journalists are also not the reason why newspapers are going under. In fact, we’re the exact reason why many haven’t gone under at this juncture in 2025.

We’re all held to the same code of ethics in journalism

Contrary to what you believe, the people who truly believe in reporting the news without a single ounce of political or personal bias are bound to the same code of ethics that you are.

The Code of Ethics in the Society of Professional Journalists is an excellent example, with four major tenets to its code:

• Seek truth and report it.
• Minimize harm.
• Act independently.
• Be accountable and transparent.

I still contribute content to newspapers in Nokomis, Sullivan, and Shelbyville on top of responsibilities running my news organization.

I established Heartland Newsfeed in 2016 because I encountered a gatekeeper like you, saying that I can’t do this and I can’t do that. I did, and it continues to operate just fine, despite two website host changes, six design reformats, and nearly a decade in operation.

And this is why I will always fight for those who get into journalism through other means.

Jake Leonard

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Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.

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