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Fascinating thread on the decline of newspapers. @JeremyLittau points out that newspapers perform an incredibly important public good, as the public watchdog, the fourth estate. And then he suggests ways you can help: by subscribing to local publications, by investing. >>
>> But there's an anomaly here. Since journalism is a critical public good, why aren't we funding it collectively with tax dollars? Because we're afraid of it getting politicized? Court systems are funded with tax dollars, and we found a way to keep them separated from politics>>
>> (at least in western Europe, where judges are appointed by professional committees, not elected.) I suspect the wider story here is a Europe-vs-US story. The US lacks ways to publicly fund local journalism, and so has to rely on the free market. >>
>> While Western Europe has a tradition of public media, and a relative willingness to fund it from taxpayers money, and to find ways to keep it independent. (Some countries do it better than ours). Maybe the US needs to finds a way to Europify its journalism.
