I turned around at the end of a talk I attended with my journalism class today, and I saw this inspiring scene -- the students interviewing each other so they can write about audience members' reaction to it.I hope they found the talk by John Nichols and Robert McChesney as rousing as I did. The two are co-founders of Free Press, a Northampton- and Washington D.C.- based pro-democracy organization, and authors of the new book "The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again."
Their premise is that journalism that helps citizens govern themselves is a "public good" that should be subsidized with our tax dollars -- just like it traditionally had been when the Founding Fathers were around and is now in many other countries considered relative bastions of democracy. (Here, advertisers had underwritten the news for the last 150 years or so, but, these days, they're taking their message directly to their target audience -- on Facebook, for instance.)
A typical reaction to McChesney's and Nichols' argument is that government subsidies will inevitably lead to "Pol Pot, death camps and gulags." But, in fact, before the emergence of advertiser-subsidized news, the Post Office underwrote the news by distributing it for free. If the federal government similarly funded journalism now the way it did in the 1840's, it would amount to $30 billion a year.
In McChesney's and Nichols' view, all the other ideas floated for underwriting serious reporting -- paywalls, NPR-style fundraising etc. -- will only get us to the "10 yard line -- and it's the wrong 10 yard line."
Some of their ideas:
-- Journalism doesn't have to be "for profit."
-- There could be an Americorps for reporters graduating from college much as there is one for teachers
-- Dramatically expand funding for public local media, which are already reporting the news to the extent they can on shoestring budgets.
--Increase funding for student media.
Brian pointed out this barred owl when we were running on the Norwottuck Rail Trail recently.
A lot has happened since I posted to AboutAmherst last. For one, Republican Scott Brown was elected to succeed Ted Kennedy as our U.S. senator. I'm promoting Matt Damon on my Facebook page to run against Brown in 2012 when Kennedy's term would have ended. I'm hearing that people would like Matt to campaign door-to-door and pledge to work to make robo-calls illegal.
In other news, I am training to become a fitness instructor -- Well, it doesn't look like I'm going to get a reporter's job, until McChesney and Nichols convince the country that news is a public good worth spending our tax dollars on, does it? And my siblings have been sending me some great photos of my nieces. Here's Olivia, of Fort Lauderdale.
And Evangeline, the queen of make-believe.
Brian pointed out this barred owl when we were running on the Norwottuck Rail Trail recently. 
A lot has happened since I posted to AboutAmherst last. For one, Republican Scott Brown was elected to succeed Ted Kennedy as our U.S. senator. I'm promoting Matt Damon on my Facebook page to run against Brown in 2012 when Kennedy's term would have ended. I'm hearing that people would like Matt to campaign door-to-door and pledge to work to make robo-calls illegal.
In other news, I am training to become a fitness instructor -- Well, it doesn't look like I'm going to get a reporter's job, until McChesney and Nichols convince the country that news is a public good worth spending our tax dollars on, does it? And my siblings have been sending me some great photos of my nieces. Here's Olivia, of Fort Lauderdale. 
And Evangeline, the queen of make-believe.
Did you see this (link)? While its not exactly commensurate with your experience it is a cause you believe in, a full-time opportunity and maybe a foot in the door for another opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of John Nichols too.
Good to see you back at blogging.
Good to see YOU, O'Reilly. I had not seen that post. Thanks for pointing it out!
ReplyDeleteI can't comment on this post because I am dead. The cuteness of Olivia's sticky-up ponytails has done me in. The End.
ReplyDeleteI love to look at those fresh young faces--the little ones, of course, but also the absorbed students. If only we could get government officials to take this alternative journalism scheme as seriously as your gang did!
ReplyDeleteMatt D. would be cuter than Scott Brown, but I'd miss his movies.......
Olivia is a little princess-rascal in the mode of Eliza! Tinky -- Me too. The students looked so into the message when I turned around and saw them. And McChesney and Nichols made government-subsidized media seem like such a no-brainer. I thought about Matt being at the height of his career but he still will be great in four years. Look at Fred Thompson.
ReplyDelete"Death, life and the future of news" Nichols and McChesney at Northeastern U by Dan Kennedy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, O'Reilly! You are a such a media maven! I'll bring this article out to the attention of the class today.
ReplyDeleteIn People's Republic of Amherst we have free WiFi downtown courtesy of Umass, the Department of Defense and to some extent the town--in other words the government.
ReplyDeleteAnd today the Internet is the new-and-vastly- improved delivery system for news just as (snail) mail was for bricks-and-mortar media all those years ago.
Internet subsidy by the government is enough.
The old guard media needs to figure out a business model that works without any additional government bailout.
As President Reagan once said, "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Nice owl, I've been watching and waiting a long time to see one in the wild, still waiting!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of some govt. sponsored news; it is only scary if the govt. insists on a monopoly and excludes/overwhelms others, where instead it can coexist with private/group news. Another (govt) cable channel for example, more news-like than cspan (e.g., CNN or others), but no corp. sponsors. So it could, for example, give free air time to consumers union instead of depending on selling ads to oil companies that own them, or viagra vendors, penis-extension peddlars, etc. etc. It could also have a capped budget (not to outspend everyone else), and incentives for increasing viewership by earning it, grants to independents, and be run politically like the judicial or arts systems (not perfect or completely free from bias of course, but feasible, and this could also be better done in a lot of ways than what we do, for example, with the supreme court).
ReplyDeleteThere have been more barred owls here in recent years, and sometimes is supposedly due to tough times up north (hard winters or low prey years). I have seen them in that area where Snell meets 116 before, and also on the Hamsphire Campus and at the Quabbin, and they should be mating and calling now (though they can call all year; "who cooks for you all" etc; the web has recordings); and see Mass Audubon for news of sightings.
Damon might not be so bad; he was a friend of Howard Zinn (recently deceased!) and narrated some recordings of the People's History of the US, so at least he'd know some of that (rather than just the usual jingoism).
Aww your children are adorable!
ReplyDeleteExcellent elimination of ellipses!
ReplyDeleteThey said it couldn't be done (and I thought they were right) but I'm not making any promises about the ellipses...(oops). I do appreciate anonymous' application of assonance (not alliteration, although actually it is ambiguous in various accounts on definition).
ReplyDelete