U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., took to the Senate floor on Monday to honor the important role VTDigger has played in Vermont’s Covid-19 response, widely regarded as the nation’s most successful.
Memorialized in the nation’s Congressional Record, Sen. Leahy noted the severe impact of the pandemic on news organizations in Vermont and across the country during a time when they have “rarely been so essential to the American people and our communities.”
“Most news outlets have had to transition to an online distribution model in distributing their reporting during this pandemic,” said Leahy. “These valiant efforts have included those by online-only news organizations such as ‘Vermont Digger,” in Vermont.”
In his comments, he touted the example that VTDigger has set with strong and steady reporting in the face of unprecedented challenges. VTDigger’s journalism combined with science-based leadership from Vermont’s state government has produced a “high degree of social trust,” Leahy stated, echoing a report by the Washington Post.
“We are grateful for this recognition of immense effort that VTDigger’s staff has made to meet the information needs of Vermonters during these extremely challenging times,” said Anne Galloway, founder and editor of VTDigger. “Moreover we are grateful to Senator Leahy for highlighting the importance of fact-based local news to the resiliency of the American public. The nation’s news ecosystem is in dire straits — exacerbated as everything is by the pandemic — and we all need to pull together to strengthen it.”
Leahy also amplified recent recognition of VTDigger in the New York Times and VTDigger’s national journalism award for local Covid-19 coverage from LION Publishers commenting the acknowledgement was “richly deserved.”
