Public Funding of Journalism Is the Only Way
Public Funding of Journalism Is the Only Way
There is no other magic solution. I promise.
My only concern with that, which is likely shared by others, was addressed beautifully in the last paragraph of the article:
The second common objection is “Impartiality! We don’t want the government’s dirty money tainting the news!” Okay. Time to get over that. It is possible to insulate journalists from public money at least as well as they were insulated from the private money of advertisers. If your position is that public money will irrevocably taint journalism but the biggest companies in America buying ads will not, I submit that you have not thought about this issue very deeply. Furthermore, there are already existing examples of states funding journalism, evidence that the nature of this problem is dawning, at least in progressive states.
That is a very good point to which I have no counter-argument. In fact, if we look at BBC as an example, they're publicly funded and maintain high credibility and a high degree of press freedom.
TL;DR: Public funding definitely won't make the situation worse, and there is evidence that it would improve things. I say give it shot.
That is a very good point to which I have no counter-argument. In fact, if we look at BBC as an example, they’re publicly funded and maintain high credibility and a high degree of press freedom.
while i haven't looked into it particularly, i'm also sure there are ways to de facto public-fund media while still creating separation from the state if you're really worried about that. like, there probably isn't just the single way to publicly fund media and you have to either accept that model or not publicly fund media, right?
while i haven't looked into it particularly, i'm also sure there are ways to de facto public-fund media while still creating separation from the state if you're really worried about that.
It's not so much that I'm worried about it personally; it's just more of a general concern for public trust given our current divisions. I just figure that, regardless of the party in power, half the country is going to call it a propaganda arm at any given time. OTOH, we already have that division with private journalism, so I guess nothing would really change much?
I think you're right on the money (pun intended) that it would have to be a de-facto funding with clear separation from the state. This is where I feel BBC does well, at least with world news.
like, there probably isn't just the single way to publicly fund media and you have to either accept that model or not publicly fund media, right?
Oh, I'm sure there are multiple feasible ways to do it - I just don't know what/which, specifically, would be necessary or best. The funding part is a bit out of my wheelhouse as that's not something we really covered in the journalism electives I took all those years ago. lol
I think that the fear of government censorship or bias in publicly-funded media can also be allayed by taking funding decisions for it away from legislative bodies, and allowing citizens to directly vote on funding, so that it's not about appealing to whoever the current administration is.
and allowing citizens to directly vote on funding, so that it’s not about appealing to whoever the current administration is.
my worry with this is that it's not obvious there's public alignment with the kind of journalism that's needed and the kind of journalism that's wanted, and further that this directly incentivizes attempting ideological capture of the media (which is part of what's gotten us here).
In fact, if we look at BBC as an example, they’re publicly funded and maintain high credibility and a high degree of press freedom.
Indeed, the BBC cannot be seen to give in to government pressure.
My counter is: have you been at the SMV? Have you seen how much government employees loathe to work? The most reliable way to kill the fifth estate is to make them government employees.
Kinda /s
Germany has a mixed landscape of government and private money in the media landscape and it kinda works so maybe it's not the worst idea.
Then again it's the people not the rules, swiss people all have guns and don't shoot up schools on the daily....