They absolutely do deserve protection.
The people (consumers) will decide which succeed or fail and who to believe (each is a business or non-profit that depends on consumers). We punish them as consumers, and the government should not punish them by taking away the 1st. Many customers want fake news - that’s not up to the government to control.
They do police themselves some (pool cameras/reporters, determining credentials, etc) and the government should not interfere with that no matter how bad they seem to do. The gov’t will only be worse at some point in the future if not now. If they allow fake news or exclude real news, the markets (consumers) will react. And for now they may allow fake news since so many consumers want it. Those of us who don’t want fake news need to be smart about our consuming not ask the gov’t to help.
If you want to see “unethical journalism” look at the newspapers Adams and Jefferson funded and the things those two personally did around distribution. Consumers really aren’t in bad shape right now.
This is why I love FR. We have the integrity and commitment to ideals that we know will bring truth to light. We don’t need to copy the left’s corruption as this article proposes.
In 1769, John Adams gleefully wrote in his diary about spending the evening occupied with "a curious employment. Cooking up Paragraphs, Articles, Occurrences etc. -- working the political Engine!" Adams, along with his cousin Sam and a handful of other Boston patriots, were planting false and exaggerated stories meant to undermine royal authority in Massachusetts.