Jim Madigan, WGBY’s longtime Director of Public Affairs and host of Connecting Point. (Photo courtesy WGBY)
WGBY’s Jim Madigan Fund will support responsible public media journalism in western New England.
SPRINGFIELD — Public television station WGBY has long aired news updates about local public affairs issues. Now, the local PBS affiliate has started a fund in honor of its late newsman Jim Madigan that will help ensure those vital news broadcasts continue.
For nearly 27 years, Madigan informed western New Englanders about local news and politics on the sets of Connecting Point and The State We’re In. He joined WGBY in December of 1990 as a senior producer of public affairs. In 2017, he retired as the stations’ director of public affairs. He passed away several months later in early 2018.
WGBY’s Jim Madigan Fund (wgby.org/madigan) is a resource created for the particular purpose of producing and advancing local public multimedia journalism that honors the ethical journalistic standards exemplified by Madigan.
“It’s critically important that our community has a reliable source of news and information it can trust. WGBY is that source,” explains WGBY General Manager Anthony V. Hayes. “Jim Madigan was committed to — and embodied — the journalistic integrity of public multimedia journalism. Through the Jim Madigan Fund, WGBY honors his legacy and continues the tradition of fact-based reporting.”
VALUE OF PUBLIC MEDIA JOURNALISM
According to WGBY, non-profit public media was designed to be a trustworthy, non-commercial resource for informing and connecting diverse communities — and the station considers quality local journalism to be a key component of that mission-oriented service.
“The chance to let someone sit and talk and express a full idea was just greater in public television,” Jim Madigan once said, reflecting on his career as a WGBY journalist. “I think it is still that way today.
According to recent surveys, it would seem the viewership concurs. In a 2018 Gallup/Knight Foundation survey, public media earned the highest rating (+31) among news organizations as the least likely to be biased. Additionally, a 2018 Marketing & Research Resources Inc. study found nearly two thirds of Americans ranked PBS news sources as the most accurate.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass. remembers Madigan’s work and underscores the value of fact-based reporting.
“More and more, we live in a fact-free society,” Neal states. “People like Jim Madigan, PBS — they provide the necessary clarification every day for all of us in a representative democracy so that we might make an informed decision. In a time when we live in more of conflict-driven journalism, his perspective was unique in the sense that he was interested in the substance of the story, not just the conflict in the story.”
FUND MISSION & GOALS
The goal of WGBY’s Jim Madigan Fund is to raise $50,000 for the local production of responsible journalism and the training of tomorrow’s principled reporters right here in Western New England. By giving to the fund, tax-deductible contributions will enable WGBY to:
- Produce local, trustworthy content for multimedia consumption.
- Inform the region’s electorate about ballot questions and candidate positions.
- Address timely social issues with live, televised town hall-style panel discussions.
- Prepare tomorrow’s journalists with hands-on internships and fellowships.
Online donations can be made at wgby.org/madigan. Offline gifts can be made by contacting WGBY Director of Development Daisy Pereira-Tosado by email at [email protected] or by phone at 413-781-2801, ext. 1586.
