We know there is a financial crisis afflicting journalism. We know the traditional institutions and infrastructure of journalism are collapsing. With that, we can readily predict that those working inside those structures – independent journalists – will flee or perish (metaphorically) in the rubble. Where will the survivors go to practice their essential business?
My thesis is that the free press is as vital a part of our democracy as the legislature and the judiciary. It is as key to our social survival as organized education. The press is as integral to daily life as electricity, hospitals and roads. There is a compelling historical, maybe constitutional duty, to create a safe structure for independent journalism. And now is already too late.
The issue is already being discussed at the highest precincts of Canadian politics and press, although they’re still mired in “bailout” ideas. That can’t work and shouldn’t be tried. The proposal laid out in the diary below “Saving the Free Press” is specific to Canadian circumstances, but the issues are no different and the urgency is perhaps all the more real in the United States, in an era of official hostility towards independent journalism.
What do we do? Let’s remind ourselves first of what we do not do: pour money into the quicksand of the existing media companies. Enough has disappeared down those holes and frankly, saving them now will not repair the damage already done.
So what do we do? Create an independent source of public funding for independent, non-profit journalism. That’s what.
In the United States, these don’t feel like days to dream of new public programs, I know. But without a dream — without worthy goals — the people who we want to see vote the rascals out, will have little to come vote for. This is an unusual and maybe hopeless cause, but that’s how marriage equality, civil rights, the Depression and slavery looked too.
A MODEST PROPOSAL TO SAVE DEMOCRACY August 7, 2015
PRESS AND PRESIDENT IN THE ERA OF TRUMP January 12, 2017
THE FREE PRESS CRISIS June 24, 2017
SAVING THE FREE PRESS June 25, 2017