Apparently French President Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a program to subsidize newspapers in order to provide them to all of France’s young people. Thought that was ridiculous? Listen to this claim of his:
“It is indeed its [the state's] responsibility … to make sure an independent, free and pluralistic press exists,”
So somehow government paying the checks of newspaper staff will make the press free and not the Ministry of Truth. Shows what I know.
But seriously, as I said in a comment over at Pushback, where Daniel Strauss was gushing over the program and how we ought to have it here in America:
The fact is that so long as people know Uncle Sam is the one paying for their rent, their meals, and their kid’s orthodontist bill there is an extremely strong incentive for them to not be too critical.
But hey, maybe this wouldn’t be a major threat to a free press. After all, it’s not like we already have a Fourth Estate that doesn’t think skepticism of our new president and any claims he makes should be the default position.
There’s nothing inherently good about print media. We don’t need to subsidize it. Especially when there are so many alternatives available.
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