(Irving was interviewed by reporter Mike Sacks on FOX5 News on Monday, July 23, 2018).

The sudden dismissal of more than half of the newsroom staff at the New York Daily News is a great loss for our fellow journalists, our city, and our democracy.

The news media are under fire from so many sources, and those who fail to recognize the danger that poses to our democratic system are not paying attention.  The first layer of democracy – that which affects us first and most directly – is at the local level: your subway, your suburb, your school district, your block.  The men and women of the Daily News knew how to dig deeply into an issue, and because of that, the paper won two Pulitzer Prizes in recent years for coverage that had a major impact on the people who live and work in this area.

The old economic model that once made this a seven newspaper town is not coming back, but surely a new system can and must be developed that allows these talented news people to keep their jobs and continue performing the vital public service they do so well.

July 23, 2018