At first glance, Storm Lake, Iowa, would appear to be just your average sleepy midwestern small town that epitomizes not only Heartland America but also why such places are considered prime flyover country. That is until you watch this excellent documentary codirected by Jerry Risus and Beth Levinson, which will no doubt upend all of your subconscious expectations of what rural heartland America is and could be—thanks to journalistic crusaders like Art Cullen, editor in chief of the feisty Storm Lake Times newspaper. It's been a family business over the last 30 years. And to boot, it's also a Pulitzer Prize-winning paper—covering a town of about 10,000 people.
Unlike so many other rural local newspapers in places like Storm Lake, the Times under the lanky Mark Twain doppelganger Cullen has evaded bankruptcy—at least for now. Winning the Pulitzer Prize may boost subscriptions at the Washington Post or the New York Times, but in Storm Lake, it means, depressingly, fewer ad sales. These dwindling sales are mainly because many of the local-yokel businessfolk resent Cullen’s political stances and (very obvious) left-leaning politics. But the average citizen of Storm Lake seems open-minded, especially because of the high percentage of immigrants living there and working at the nearby Tyson pork plant.
Filmmakers Risius and Levinson don’t seem satisfied with just telling the story of Cullen and his small-town journalistic crusade. Their educational documentary also becomes a window into the ominous corporate agribusiness takeover happening in so many towns like Storm Lake around the country, pushing out mom-and-pop farming and cattle-processing operations in favor of impersonal corporate monoliths. Of course, where the impersonality of rampant corporatization really rears its ugly head is during the beginnings of COVID. A massive outbreak of the virus occurs at the Tyson plant, and the company fails to take the necessary precautions to protect its mostly immigrant workforce.
Storm Lake ends on an unexpectedly hopeful note, despite the economic impact on the Times of the pandemic. You begin to think Cullen’s old-timer faith in just putting out a “great paper” as the key to turning a profit might still be true, even in the face of pandemics, corporate takeovers, and the increasing competition from bogus internet news. Recommended for academic library shelves focusing on business and journalism students.