Yah. That's the latest from Davos, where the water does not have radium, but (evidently) has hallucinogenic chemical additives.
Yesterday, Columbia University (yes, that Columbia University, home of the Columbia School of Journalism) President Lee Bollinger announced his support for government subsidies for “Old Media” (H/T - Jon Ham).
If you were wondering about the position of the Columbia School of Journalism’s dean, Nick Lemann, Forbes’ Carl Lavin has that disappointment. The upshot: “Right now the mismatch between the social mission of journalism and the market support for that mission seems to be growing, so I think we should explore other means of support for serious journalism. Per the above, these can be, and generally have been in the US, policy interventions that amount to indirect rather than direct government subsidies. But I’m not against subsidies per se, if we can establish BBC-like safeguards of editorial independence.”
The BEEB and "Editorial Independence" in the SAME SENTENCE??
HT: No Runny Eggs.
I didn't know that journalism was supposed to have a social mission. Then again, I never went through J-school.
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious that the J-schools never really meet with the business schools; otherwise, the "journalists" would reassess both the desire and direction of that "social mission".
As an aside, I do highly-recommend Jon Ham's blog, Right Angles (and not just because of who his daughter is). He and his partners, Jon Sanders and Donna Martinez, are dealing with much the same insanity we are.
One way this could be done would be like some agricultural subsidies. The Forest Service could pay for newspapers to not be printed. Or newspapers could be purchased for improved presentation of fish and chips in school lunch programs.
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