"The EPA Killed This Newspaper’s Funding. Was It Something They Said?"

"The Bay Journal, a monthly paper covering the Chesapeake Bay, isn’t the New York Times or CNN, and has so far avoided mention in the president’s Twitter feed. But the Bay Journal may be a casualty in the administration’s war on the media: the Journal recently lost its largest source of funding, in what its lawyers say was likely a violation of its First Amendment rights.

The Environmental Protection Agency is required under the Clean Water Act to inform the public about its massive Bay cleanup project. Since the 1980s, it’s been providing public information by funding the Bay Journal through competitive grants. The Journal’s $325,000 a year is a tiny fraction of the cleanup project’s $73 million budget.

These days, the Journal is the authority on all things Chesapeake — everything from the latest on the blue crab harvest, to the effect of climate change on the Bay."

Jacob Fenston reports for WAMU/NPR February 7, 2018.