Some ivory tower journalists are calling for government-supported journalism? We already have that. It’s called NPR and PBS, and look what that got us. Bill Moyers.
In the early ’90s I consulted with several newspapers in Russia that were trying to cut their ties to government after 70 years of “support.” American newspapers are a basket case, for sure, but moving to a system abandoned by Russia 15 years ago is not the answer. Turning them into welfare cases isn’t going to improve journalism, it’s just going to hook up the lefty totalitarian instincts of many career government bureaucrats with the collectivist instincts of most editors and reporters. What a combo.
The Columbia Journalism Review says:
One need merely consult Romenesko, the media-news aggregator, to witness the freefall in circulation, the unending editorial cutbacks, and the closure of foreign bureaus at so many major metropolitan papers.
My response? So freakin’ what! Arrogance and bias got them where they are today. The free market is working. People are turning elsewhere. They no longer have any love for those inky pages they used to fondle, edited by dinosaurs and filled with agenda prose by budding socialists cultivated in America’s sclerotic journalism schools.
IN RELATED NEWS: Will McClatchy, The News & Observer‘s owner, miss debt payments? N&O editors like to crow about “stable” circulation, but with a burgeoning population barely breaking even on circulation is nothing to crow about.
