6 ms·
> News should be free How do you propose news be funded?
by jefftk 5y ago
> News should be free
How do you propose news be funded?
- ixtli 5y agoPublicly, for instance. I think this is bad faith because it’s clear OP means it should be free at point of use. I doubt they’re arguing the people who create it shouldn’t be compensated. There are many ways to do this.
- endisneigh 5y agoWhy would the government fund news criticizing it, unless you had a different definition of publicly in mind?
- throwaway277360 5y agoExactly. If the King paid for the newspaper, he would de-fund them if they reported news that went against the King. The fourth estate must remain independent.
- pietrovismara 5y agoThe same exact statement is true for private ownership. The difference is that with public funding you can legislate to prevent governments to interfere with the news outlets. When they are privately owned on the other hand, you have no control over it.
- spacemanmatt 5y agoThe public should not care why its government might not like to fund news criticizing it. Just governments tolerate and respond to criticism.
- tata71 5y agopropublica.org
- pietrovismara 5y agoThe "about us"[0] page is a bit hidden but explains well the concept. - [0]: https://www.propublica.org/about/ https://www.propublica.org/about/
- allendoerfer 5y agoHow do you think courts or parliaments are funded? The same argument applies here. Why should the fourth power be any different than the second or third?
- endisneigh 5y agoI’m not making an argument, I’m asking why would the government do this, now especially. Why not maintain the status quo?
- Ajedi32 5y agoFair point, but consider that the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches of government is enforced by the constitution. Without a constitutional amendment, a fourth "public information" branch would have no such protection. Furthermore, consider that these days even the courts (which are supposed to be politically neutral) have become highly politicized. I can't think of any reason why a supposedly neutral fourth branch of government would be any better in that regard.
- allendoerfer 5y agoI do not know for sure about the US constitution, but my constitution already has freedom of press in it. I guess the press would have to distribute the money by themselves, the government would just hand it over.
- MichaelBurge 5y agoThe government funds a Supreme Court that rules to overturn its own legislation, often criticizing it in the process.
- pietrovismara 5y agoWhy would private investors fund news criticizing them?
- jefftk 5y agoAs long as you have many different news outlets owned by different investors this should be ok?
- Miner49er 5y agoExcept wealthy people still own the vast majority, so news will generally favor the wealthy.
- pietrovismara 5y agoThe problem is that the interests of the private investors converge. The best we can hope from them is to fight each other, but they won't ever attack the system that keeps them all rich.
- Ensorceled 5y agoThe US is currently dismantling their Post Office, which is required to be funded by their Constitution. In Canada, we have publicly funded news (the CBC) but one of the major political parties runs on a platform of destroying it every election.
- breckenedge 5y ago> The US is currently dismantling their Post Office Where did you read this? The US postal system is not being dismantled, it’s meant to be self funded and it cannot meet its financial obligations. > required to be funded by their Constitution. It only empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads." That’s the entire Post Office clause.
- sofixa 5y ago> it’s meant to be self funded and it cannot meet its financial obligations Since when are public services required to be self funded? Are the army, police or DMV self funded? And don't their obligations included obviously biased ( in favour of painting the post office as a financially ruinous institution and privatise/dismantle it) provisions for full pensions of future employees, which nobody else does, anywhere?
- breckenedge 5y agoIt’s that way because Congress makes it that way. That’s how they decided to run it and they are the only people able to change it.
- dwheeler 5y agoI know of no requirement in the US Constitution that the US government fund the US Post Office. The US Constitution grants Congress the authority to do so if it chooses to, and historically it has chosen to. Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads." More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Clause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Clause I do think that the US government should ensure that you should ensure that the mail continues. I just wanted to clarify that government isn't obligated to pay for it.
- afarrell 5y agoI think it is good faith because it points out the unintended consequences of the action that OP advocates: quality journalism goes underfunded and the cohesion of society suffers —- unless there is also a proposal for how to differently fund journalism.
- Ekaros 5y agoSo like BBC or Pravda? I don't trust publicly funded organisations with important things like news not to be corrupted and start serving only certain political agenda.
- pietrovismara 5y agoSo you'd rather trust Rupert Murdoch to make your interest? Because it is 100% guaranteed that his news outlets are going to serve only his political agenda.
- ixtli 5y agoMore to this point: you have some form of redress against the government. None against Murdoch unless you are very rich. If this isn’t obvious then you don’t know much about the BBC. If anything, I’d argue they spend too much time hand-wringing about listener / viewer complaints.
- OneTimePetes 5y agoBy estimating the damage done to society by under-reporting, schedule half of said damage from tax-money into a fund, and make user reading a similar themed news-page, allocate a small percentage of said fund to the newspaper. The fewer articles a user reads, the more valuable a single "read" becomes. The system is gambled with tons of faked users. A Issue on which the journalists are reporting. It becomes economic unfeasible to do anything else then click bait journalism..
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Ensorceled 5y agoMaybe journalists should do all that work for Clout and love of their craft. If they were real journalists, they'd be homeless for our benefit and amusement.
- junon 5y agoBad faith arguments are discouraged on HN.
- throwawayswede 5y agoSo should be quoting HN rules without explaining exactly and very specifically how and what you're referencing applies.
- junon 5y ago"Bad faith" is pretty self-explanatory, is it not? Of course it was sarcasm, the point being made is a bad faith assumption of the GP's point.
- throwawayswede 5y agoThe point is not in explaining "bad faith", but in explaining how and why the comment you're replying to is "bad faith". Was not clear to me at all that you were being sarcastic.
- junon 5y agoWe're running in circles a bit here but the author of the comment I responded to claimed in a followup comment that it was sarcasm. Sarcasm and bad/good faith discussion are mutually exclusive.
- throwawayswede 5y agoInception level guessing and assumptions you're making all in this thread.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Miner49er 5y agoDonor funded news exists.