Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to reporters during a rally about redistricting at the Democracy Center of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 2025. Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters
Last month, while signing a bill to provide a tax credit for struggling local news outlets, Gov. Gavin Newsom reminisced about the days when reporters thronged around him when he was mayor of San Francisco — right around the time tech platforms swept into town and permanently disrupted the media industry.
“There’s not a lot of you,” he said to the assembled Capitol press corps, with whom he said he had enjoyed an “awkwardly healthy” relationship over two terms as governor. “There’s not enough.”
Left unsaid was how much he’s taken advantage of the industry’s transformation in his own political rise.
The past two decades of media contraction have allowed government officials in every town to talk less to traditional news outlets. Instead, they talk directly with voters and constituents on their own platforms.
That allows them to dodge tough questions and independent media coverage where they’re “not controlling the narrative,” said Menlo College political science professor Melissa Michelson. Politicians have sought this for decades,…
