Stripped for Parts: American Journalism at the Crossroads is the story of how hedge funds and private equity are plundering what is left of America’s newspapers, and the journalists who are fighting back. Beginning with unprecedented activism in 2018 by reporters and editors in Denver, Colorado, the film follows the struggle for the resources and soul of America’s news media and by extension, the health and survival of American democracy.
In April 2018, after yet anotherseries of distressing newsroom layoffs, Denver Postopinion-page editor Chuck Plunkett couldn’t suppress his own opinion any longer. He wrote an impassioned editorialthat stunned colleagues and garnered national coverage. His editorialattacked the newspaper’s owners, New York-based Alden Global Capital, blasting them as“vulture capitalists” and proclaimed, “We call for action.Denver deserves a newspaper owner who supports its newsroom. If Alden isn’t willing to do good journalism here, it should sell The Postto owners who will.”
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