OPINION: Local news offers a powerful reality check on Trump’s tariff carnage

I have a suggestion for the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: Watch some local TV news. Maybe then he’ll find out just how wrong he is about the way retirees are responding to this Trump-induced multi-trillion-dollar stock market crash. Bessent made headlines this week for insisting that seniors are not bothering to check their retirement savings. He said they weren’t worrying even as the plummeting stock market jeopardized their retirement, wiped out their savings and threatened recession. If Bessent tuned into Fox 5 Atlanta, he’d hear retirees tell reporter Kevyn Stewart that the stock market volatility has them checking their retirement accounts all the time. Retiree Dennis Mathern says, “The tariff thing is a big curveball.” Henry Pippin adds: “Those of us who aren’t billionaires, who just have a pot of money that we have to live off of, you gotta be sure that the bulk of that is gonna be there.” The multi-millionaire treasury secretary could also watch WXYZ-TV in Detroit, where former teacher John Jeffire told reporter Christiana Ford that “he now checks his 401 (k) retirement savings plan almost daily.” Yes, almost daily. It’s the same story in Arizona where one retiree told Cronkite News: “If you’re 75 years old and your total income is dependent on Social Security and supplemented by a small 401k account … That’s really scary.” Local news around the country is filled with stories about the way Americans are responding to the growing economic challenges. The impacts go beyond keeping an eagle eye on dwindling bank accounts. In Detroit, where the auto industry has been hit especially hard by Trump’s tariff scheme, WXYZ is covering the Stellantis auto plant workers laid off by the tariff-induced plant closings. The station also reported on a suburban bridal store owner forced to close up shop because of increased costs. The Detroit Free Press is also all over the tariff story with multiple stories about the impact on the state’s auto industry. Susan Tompor, the paper’s personal finance columnist is doing some important analysis about the ugly fallout of the market crash, and what it means to Michigan’s economy. She’s also writing about pocketbook issues like the impact on consumer’s car payments. Tompor wrote:

“President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs are likely to send new monthly car payments soaring, possibly adding roughly $90 to $180 a month extra to already steep car payments, according to one estimate. It’s one more gust in the tariff tsunami that’s about to hit consumers as Trump’s new economic paradigm unfolds in the weeks ahead. And no, most car buyers aren’t going to be happy about this development. Buckle up, it’s going to be a costly ride.”

Here in Illinois, Peoria’s WEEK-TV is reporting on the impact on home builders because of rising lumber costs. Farming is a key part of the Central Illinois economy, so WMBD-TV interviewed a local economist about how the region’s grain exports might suffer. In Chicago, the Sun-Times talked to people rushing to buy cars before the prices went up. ABC7 Chicago visited a 130-year-old company that survived the Great Depression but is now at risk because of the Trump tariffs. CEO Craig Freedman says:

“We import products not because we want to but because we need to, you just can’t get here. This will… be an equal, if not greater, challenge than we have ever experienced.”

In Wisconsin, makers of big industrial machinery like CAT scans, MRIs and tractors fear tariffs will ruin their international sales. Companies that rely on imports are also stressed. Missy Huges, the state’s top economic development leader, told the Wisconsin Examiner: “There’s going to be increased grocery prices, there might be inflation. It’s going to cost more to replace your dishwasher or your automobile.” Even the Sinclair-owned TV station in Madison has stories about worried consumers and business owners. All of these stories showcase what local news does best: putting a face to the real-life impacts of the Trump policies. We’ve seen the same thing with local coverage of the DOGE cutbacks and the “Hands Off” and “Tesla Takedown” protests. Longtime broadcast journalist Sharon Silbar says:

“…Local news does a much better job of explainers, implications, and consequences for individuals and communities than network (news) or big cable. Local news reporting and packaging almost always starts with a character to illustrate the much bigger picture in the country. Why? … Because local news managers insist on it.”

A Georgia local news exec told me:

“…Our focus has been on the repercussions for consumers and for the federal workers impacted by job cuts. The situation still feels chaotic. For instance, we have stayed close to the people losing their positions at the CDC and their concern about how the agency will continue its mission to protect public health. But these are also members of our community who are losing pay as well as their own health insurance. We dig a lot less into the politics because the prices our audience may pay now for a new car or groceries hits closer to home.”

That’s obviously quite a contrast to the coverage we are seeing on right-wing media like Fox, One America News Network and Newsmax where negative tariff news is largely absent. There are occasional reality blips like when one Fox co-host dared to point out that iPhones might soon cost over $2k, but mostly it’s all cheerleading for Trump. New York Times reporter Michael Grynbaum noted that “Fox News has projected a conspicuous calm about the worst stock market sell-off since the 2020 pandemic.” Fox even stopped using its live on-screen stock ticker for the first time in 28-years. Tom Schaller, co-author of the book “White Rural Rage,” told Greg Sargent:

“They’re not even showing the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ on their tickers because they know that their listeners and viewers cannot handle any negative news. They need to be constantly reinforced with nonstop pro-red, pro-Republican, pro-Trump, pro-MAGA news because they can’t handle the truth, as Jack Nicholson would say.”

I know that every time I’ve checked in, Fox was talking about Democrats, not the stock market shocks felt around the world. The Fox website is also ignoring the economic carnage. So to Bessent and others who are aggressively ignoring the facts, I say do yourself and the nation a favor. Watch and read some local news. Unlike the happy talk you’ll find on your favorite right-wing networks, the faces and the stories of real Americans are front and center. Spend a little time with that before you tell us nobody cares that you are destroying the retirements they have worked so hard to earn.

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Jennifer Schulze is a longtime Chicago journalist. She’s on Bluesky @newsjennifer.bsky.social and Substack at “Indistinct Chatter.”