Independent Journalism, Supported in Theory

By Cliff Potts, Editor-in-Chief, WPS News

Independent journalism is widely praised. It is retweeted, invoked in speeches, cited as essential to democracy, and celebrated in abstract conversations about truth and accountability. In theory, it matters. In practice, it is left to starve.

This is not a complaint. It is an observation.

For months, WPS News and Occupy 2.5 have continued to publish without institutional backing, without grants, without a foundation behind the curtain. The work has not stopped. Essays, reporting, analysis, and documentation have continued daily, even after the primary workstation failed and operations shifted entirely to a low-end phone. The output did not slow. The standard did not drop.

The response was silence.

The Applause Gap

Most people who claim to value independent journalism mean something very specific: they value the idea of it. They like knowing it exists. They like sharing links when the work aligns with their views. They like pointing to it as proof that alternatives to corporate media still survive.

What they do not do is support it in any tangible way.

This is not unique. It is systemic. Independent journalism lives in a strange space where it is constantly affirmed rhetorically and quietly abandoned materially. The applause is loud. The follow-through is nonexistent.

The Myth of “Someone Else Will Handle It”

There is an unspoken assumption that if a publication is worth reading, someone else will step in. A donor. An organization. A benefactor. A system.

That assumption is wrong.

Independent outlets exist precisely because those systems either failed or were never interested to begin with. When support does not arrive, it is not because the work lacks value. It is because responsibility has been outsourced to an imaginary third party.

In the meantime, the work continues to be consumed.

Asking the Uncomfortable Question

There comes a point when a simple question has to be asked:

Why should independent journalists continue fighting for audiences who will not fight for them?

This is not a demand for money. It is not a fundraising appeal. It is a question of reciprocity. Movements, causes, and ideals do not survive on admiration alone. They survive on participation.

Silence is an answer. So is inaction.

What Continues Regardless

The writing will continue. The record will continue. The documentation will continue, because that is the work itself. But illusions have been stripped away.

Independent journalism is not sustained by belief.
It is sustained by choice.

And too often, the choice is not made.

For more social commentary, please visit Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com