But, But… A Free Press is Supposed to be a GOOD Thing?

First this almost viral story:  From Don Surber, and many others.

That Vietnam hero John Kerry is saying:

And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely. The media in America has a bigger responsibility than it’s exercising today. The media has got to to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual.

It doesn’t deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. And the problem is everything is put into this tit-for-tat equal battle and America is losing any sense of what’s real, of who’s accountable, of who is not accountable, of who’s real, who isn’t, who’s serious, who isn’t?

Then I stumbled across THIS curious bit of logic: Journalism Needs Government Help

At the same time, however, the financial viability of the U.S. press has been shaken to its core. The proliferation of communications outlets has fractured the base of advertising and readers. Newsrooms have shrunk dramatically and foreign bureaus have been decimated. My best estimate is that there are presently only a few dozen full-time foreign correspondents from the U.S. covering all of China, despite the critical importance of that nation to our future.

Both the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission are undertaking studies of ways to ensure the steep economic decline faced by newspapers and broadcast news does not deprive Americans of the essential information they need as citizens. One idea under consideration is enhanced public funding for journalism. (emphasis added)

Mr. Bollinger goes on to say we need NOT fear government control of The Press:

There are examples of other institutions in the U.S. where state support does not translate into official control. The most compelling are our public universities and our federal programs for dispensing billions of dollars annually for research.

I guess nameless bureaucrats in some cubicles deciding who gets how much, and for what, isn’t really a form of control?

We, The Great Unwashed, are simply not enlightened enough to make these decisions in the market place! Big Brother will take of of us in yet another way.

Category: Geezer Alert!, Media, Politics