Shreveport-Bossier is America's fastest shrinking metropolitan economy according to data from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The most obvious question to ask is how did this happen? Who is responsible and how does this get fixed?

Shreveport demographer Elliott Stonecipher says the problem comes down to no accountability.

"We have such a racially divided city and have historically, when we elect people to public office here, what they know is that they can finesse the news media," explained the Shreveport demographer. "They can finesse the opinion leaders. They can accuse them of being racist one way or the other. The news media today in many places, Shreveport included, is a shadow of its former self."

Stonecipher said that the local news outlets either don't have the desire or push to seek out the truth and hold our leaders accountable or the content that they do pull out is critique, labeled and disregarded.

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"What we have is no 'sheriff'. There is no accountability," continued Stonecipher. "There is no newspaper front page to worry about, there is no group of ministers to worry about, there is nobody who is going to do anything about anything that happens."

Think of news outlets in other metropolitan areas. The most obvious example of what Stonecipher is talking about are newspapers like the New York Times, New York Post and New York Daily News in New York City. Anytime there is a scandal, even just a hint of one, that front cover is the first thing that people see and think of when they go to the ballot box or are asked for their opinion about a particular subject.

"We depended on the media for that accountability," Stonecipher noted. "For decades, we had it here. We don't now. It's a big problem."

And the Shreveport demographer added that this is a fairly unique problem.

"I do see that there are small markets, smaller than Shreveport-Bossier let's say, that still have really daily newspapers, for example, because they are relatively mature markets," Stonecipher stated. "You have East Texas towns that still get daily news, their local TV and radio stations provide it. It's very unique to have a place like Shreveport-Bossier for there not to be a front page for politicians to not worry about. It's a pretty unique problem."

However, it's not so unique of a problem that other Louisiana communities don't complain of it either.