Fixing the Fourth Estate
TJ Cotterill
Issue date: 2/26/10 Section: Journalism
With the number of American journalists shrinking rapidly, the question now becomes; what can be done to revive the journalism industry or even what can be done to save democracy?
One of the solutions that has been thrown around is the idea of government subsidies for postage and paper, which could relieve the journalism industry of some of its financial constraints, and allow for the funds necessary to provide in-depth news.
Included in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution is the right to a press free from government control, but the founding fathers not only believed that we should have a free press, but that a free press should always exist.
I can completely understand the questions that just came up like: "Government subsidies? You just said journalism should be free from the government?" However, we can still have accurate, objective journalism with government funding without the government entering into the news decision-making process.
I will go back to our founding fathers -- you know, guys like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Andrew Hamilton -- for these guys journalism was clearly a priority. Before the 1860s, only the military received more funding than journalism, according to authors Robert McChesney and John Nichols who co-wrote the book "The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again."
If the same amount was given in subsidies today, adjusted for inflation, as in the 1840s, the government would be giving $30 billion a year to support journalism, according to McChesney and Nichols. Last year, only $400 million in government subsidies was given to the entire broadcast media industry -- not just journalism.
You may be thinking, "How can the government give $30 billion, when all I hear is how broke America is?" If so, think of it this way: $30 billion is only four or five percent of the first bank bailout, or the amount we spent on the first 12 weeks on the war in Iraq.
One of the solutions that has been thrown around is the idea of government subsidies for postage and paper, which could relieve the journalism industry of some of its financial constraints, and allow for the funds necessary to provide in-depth news.
Included in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution is the right to a press free from government control, but the founding fathers not only believed that we should have a free press, but that a free press should always exist.
I can completely understand the questions that just came up like: "Government subsidies? You just said journalism should be free from the government?" However, we can still have accurate, objective journalism with government funding without the government entering into the news decision-making process.
I will go back to our founding fathers -- you know, guys like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Andrew Hamilton -- for these guys journalism was clearly a priority. Before the 1860s, only the military received more funding than journalism, according to authors Robert McChesney and John Nichols who co-wrote the book "The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again."
If the same amount was given in subsidies today, adjusted for inflation, as in the 1840s, the government would be giving $30 billion a year to support journalism, according to McChesney and Nichols. Last year, only $400 million in government subsidies was given to the entire broadcast media industry -- not just journalism.
You may be thinking, "How can the government give $30 billion, when all I hear is how broke America is?" If so, think of it this way: $30 billion is only four or five percent of the first bank bailout, or the amount we spent on the first 12 weeks on the war in Iraq.
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