When Herb Scannell took the helm at Southern California Public Radio (SCPR) nearly four years ago, he found himself scribbling down the words “democracy needs to be heard.” The longtime industry executive, who once led Nickelodeon and BBC Worldwide America, had been thinking in early 2019 about the striking rise in partisanship and polarizing discourse playing out across the country. Scannell, SCPR’s president and CEO, had no idea then that the slogan he created, which was used in the company’s capital campaign brochure and radio messaging, would ring prophetic. The need for journalism to be “a stalwart of democracy” is [...more...]