Be warned, dear reader, this column may trigger you. Skip straight to the comics if necessary.

A new report, drafted to help the news media build public support, says that talking about democracy triggers people nowadays because they’re so burned out on partisan politics.

Even though people know how important local news is to our form of government, they’re tired of hearing the D-word, according to “Words that Matter: A Toolkit for Newsrooms.”

“Here’s the paradox: 93% of people believe reliable local news is necessary for democracy, yet many of these same people react negatively to explicit ‘democracy’ messaging,” it states.

“This happens because of a disconnect between cognitive and emotional responses. People intellectually understand the connection but emotionally resist being told about it. Years of political messaging have created fatigue around the word ‘democracy,’ and it now triggers partisan defenses regardless of people’s actual beliefs.”

I’m all for finding ways to build more support for local news. Trust and support among the public are foundational. Also needed to stabilize and regrow the industry are government support, antitrust enforcement, philanthropy, strengthened copyright protection and creative business models.

Better marketing and branding might help, too. But it’s a mistake, especially now, to use squishier language and soft-pedal the importance of local news to (D-word).

Polling by the report’s authors no doubt reflects the weird spell that half the country’s under, after a decadelong attack by the current president on the press and other pillars of (D-word).

The success of that war on accountability shows up in other surveys. Pew Research Center found more than half of Republicans now believe most journalists are dishonest, elitist and biased. I doubt euphemisms will change their mind or prevent them from being triggered.

Meanwhile local newspapers, which continue to provide the vast majority of essential news that people need in a (D-word), are closing at a rate of 2.5 per week on average. More than a third closed since 2005, leaving half of U.S. counties with little to no local news.

Many remaining newspapers have stabilized but with far smaller newsrooms. Two-thirds of newsroom jobs disappeared over the last two decades.

The report, and another to help fundraisers talk to donors about local news, was commissioned by Press Forward, a remarkable coalition of big philanthropies led by the MacArthur Foundation and Knight Foundation. It raised more than $500 million in 2023 to help save local journalism.

Oops, sorry. The report also said people are turned off by the word “journalism.”

The public affairs firm that wrote the report said “journalism” can evoke partisanship or elitism for some audiences, so I should have said “local news and information” instead.

I agree that “journalism” can sound highbrow. It can also prompt tedious discussions by journalists about how to define journalism.

Even so, Americans value trusted, local news and the accountability that journalism provides, according to the Press Forward report.

The report was based in part on a survey of 3,001 adults in April, plus focus groups and interviews with “stakeholders.” That generated encouraging and useful data. It’s also another rebuttal to the latest Gallup poll that found trust in “mass media” is at a new low, especially among Republicans.

When Americans were asked more detailed questions for the “Toolkit” report, results showed they “maintain a strong appreciation for local news, with overwhelming majorities recognizing its importance for community building and democratic participation.”

Asked directly, “87% of respondents say that local news matters to them personally,” it said.

That dropped a bit among 18-to-29 year-olds, to 77%, but “remains substantial across all demographic groups, suggesting that even younger Americans who consume news differently still recognize its importance.”

“This tell us that local news matters to Americans, even if they aren’t taking action to support it,” the report said.

It also tested terms like “journalism” and “local news and information,” to see which the subjects preferred and come up with recommended language.

That’s where it starts getting problematic.

I’m wary whenever a PR firm tries to put words in the mouths of newsrooms.

I also fear this advice will enable more mission creep by funders who set out to address the decline of local journalism.

As soon as philanthropies committed big bucks to saving local news, advocacy groups started pushing them to broaden their definitions and give money to an array of nonprofits that aren’t necessarily doing journalism.

There’s an endless list of worthy causes, organizations and niche media, all of which generate “local news and information.” There’s also an abundance of “local news and information” available from other sources, including local government.

What’s scarce and disappearing fast are independent, local news outlets doing professional journalism and holding officials accountable. The report nailed that part of the problem:

“Even as newsrooms close and beats disappear, many Americans believe they are still ‘covered’ because they can find information somewhere, whether that’s on Facebook or in a community newsletter,” it said. “The public doesn’t necessarily distinguish between depth and breadth, or between fact-checked reporting and unverified posts.”

If only there were a word we could use to describe fact-checked reporting.

I’m grateful to Press Forward for helping advance the conversation about how to support local news. Donors can of course give money to whoever they want and use whatever words they prefer.

But for this project, and at this time in history, I suggest being specific and not muddling the message based on fleeting market research.

If Americans are truly tired of hearing the D-word, and it turns them off to hear journalism is needed to sustain it, maybe we should just start preparing for the F-word. The one that ends with M and rhymes with “schism.”

This is excerpted from the free, weekly Voices for a Free Press newsletter. Sign up to receive it at the Save the Free Press website, st.news/SavetheFreePress. Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley is the editor of the Free Press Initiative, which aims to inform the public about issues facing newspapers, local news coverage, and a free press. You can learn more about the Free Press Initiative, or sign up for a newsletter, at https://company.seattletimes.com/save-the-free-press/.