Local Public TV Station Creates Fund Honoring Late Journalist

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WGBY’s Jim Madigan Fund will support responsible public media journalism in western New England.

 

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. — 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 dpereira-tosado@wgby.org or by phone at 413-781-2801, ext. 1586.


ABOUT WGBY

WGBY (wgby.org) is a community-supported public broadcasting organization connecting the people of western New England to events, ideas, and each other through national PBS programming and locally produced content. With four digital television channels, video on demand, podcasting, and streaming video, WGBY is one of the region’s most accessible community institutions. WGBY is available over the air on digital channel 57-1 and on cable throughout western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut and can be seen in high definition in western Massachusetts at Comcast 857, Time Warner 1807, Charter 782, and over the air on channel 57.

 

Jim Madigan, WGBY’s longtime Director of Public Affairs and host of Connecting Point.

ABOUT JIM MADIGAN
Jim Madigan joined WGBY in December of 1990 as a senior producer of public affairs. In 2017, he retired from the station as Director of Public Affairs. In addition to hosting WGBY’s Connecting Point, a local public affairs series, Madigan was also producer of The State We’re In, a weekly segment focusing on regional, state, and national politics. Madigan produced and/or moderated numerous major political debates as well, including a January 2010 program with the Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidates in the special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Kennedy. Madigan moderated a total of seven gubernatorial debates over the last 20 years, along with a 1996 debate in the U.S. Senate race between Sen. John Kerry and Gov. William Weld and a U.S. Senate debate between Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren in October 2012. In November of 2015, Madigan was an inductee of the prestigious Silver Circle Award of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) Boston/New England Chapter. In 1992, Madigan was honored with both a New England Regional Emmy® and a National Public Service Emmy® as a co-producer of the documentary “Out of Work,” a co-production with WGBH-Boston, WGBY-Springfield, and WHYY-Philadelphia.

 

ABOUT CONNECTING POINT
The WGBY series, Connecting Point, is a half-hour, magazine-style program focusing on the stories of the western New England community: its people, its ideas, and its current affairs. Connecting Point serves not only the region’s public television viewing audience, but also its online and multimedia content consumers as well. Connecting Point and its The State We’re In segments are available online at wgby.org/connectingpoint or on WGBY’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/wgby). Social media users can engage with Connecting Point content using the Facebook and Twitter hashtag #CPonWGBY.

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