Our Founding Statement

Nebraska has a news coverage problem. The media landscape in our state has continued to shrink as traditional media outlets close their doors, reduce staff, or consolidate. As a result, Nebraskans are becoming less informed about the important stories happening in their capital city and across the state.

This failure has real-world implications. The decreased level of investigative journalism in our state has created accountability failures where whole swaths of leaders and interest groups have been able to act with little to no media scrutiny.

The continued decline of media outlets in our state means that many existing organizations have become beholden to special interests whether in the demand for clicks and a quick profit in an increasingly unprofitable industry or the need to cater to partisan donors that do not share the values of ordinary Nebraskans.

The answer to these problems is The Plains Sentinel, a digital media organization based in Lincoln, Nebraska. The organization is dedicated to restoring integrity and balance to local journalism. The Plains Sentinel will investigate and report on stories that have been ignored by other media outlets. The focus will be on corruption, ideological overreach, and government failures in the city of Lincoln and across Nebraska.

The organization will seek to platform stories and voices that reflect the values of everyday Nebraskans, and serve as a ballast to the growth of partisan influences that currently dominate our state’s media landscape.

At the heart of The Plains Sentinel is a love for Nebraska, its people, its values, and of course corn, cattle, and Husker football. We know that the things we love are what bind our state together and that these loves are sustained, in part, through a shared knowledge and understanding of the people, places, and events in our state.

Our organization shares a commitment for seeking out truth, upholding excellence in our work and community, and supporting our country’s founding principles of ordered liberty. It is through journalism that these shared loves and principles can be guarded and allowed to grow.

Inscribed on our state state capitol are the words, “The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen.” Only a well informed public will continue to allow Nebraska to be the best place in the country to live, work, and raise a family.

It is in this spirit that we take up and write.