Storm Lake: Screening and Panel Discussion

The Majestic Theater and the Gettysburg Times present a screening of Storm Lake, a documentary film about independent local journalism, followed by a panel discussion with Gettysburg Times editors about the role of local journalism in rural communities.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Art Cullen and his family fight to unite and inform their rural Iowan farming community through their biweekly newspaper, The Storm Lake Times – even as the paper hangs on by a thread. Twice a week, they work as civic watchdogs to protect their hometown and the legacy of credible journalism, at large. Storm Lake, a new documentary film released in 2021, gives an intimate look at their work.

Cullen is an old-school journalist who has dedicated his life to his family’s biweekly paper. In 2017, Art unearthed a conspiracy between Big Agriculture and local county officials that won him a Pulitzer. Now, his liberal voice reverberates in this conservative district in a critical swing state. While he has the power to change minds and rally votes, his pugnacious voice makes waves; disgruntled residents don’t always agree with his point of view and have been known to write him and his paper off, completely.

Immediately following the documentary screening, Tim Lambert, Multimedia News Director and host of Morning Edition at WITF-FM, Harrisburg, will lead a panel discussion with Gettysburg Times editors and the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, discussing the role of professional journalists in providing crucial context and news coverage in rural communities in an era of shrinking newsrooms, diminishing resources, and growing misinformation. Lambert covered Gettysburg and Adams County for several years before joining WITF.