Journalism Needs Government Funding to Survive
Last week’s decision by Republicans in Congress to eliminate government funding for public media blows a billion-dollar hole in the budgets of local news stations across America. While NPR and PBS will survive, the existence of small broadcasters in rural, red-state news deserts is now endangered. In at least one sense, however, this attack on the public’s right to news will have a unifying function. Journalists, citizens, and civil society as a whole—red, blue, or striped—can be assured that we are all riding a pendulum swinging at terrifying speed in the wrong direction.
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