If you want the media to be a 4th branch of government (not that I'm in favor of it!), amend the Constitution and fund it the same way the other 3 get funded.

If you want the media to be a 4th branch of government (not that I'm in favor of it!), amend the Constitution and fund it the same way the other 3 get funded. If you want it to be independent of the government, then you'll have to come up with some way to fund it that doesn't depend either on direct funding or the backdoor funding of making it illegal to innovate in the field.