Free Republic

Newspapers are for sale across the country. National Public Radio and television news shows are laying off staff. The Tribune Co. (which owns this and other newspapers) is in bankruptcy. It's clear that journalism is in crisis, and in the current recession, things are likely to get much worse. That's alarming. A robust press is vital to our democracy. And while bloggers and other new-media news operations have enriched the public dialogue in important ways, their work still depends on the painstaking -- and expensive -- reporting supplied by traditional journalists. Some conclude from the recent dire reports about the...

A common defense of error today is to say, with due indignation, "I have a right to my opinion!"  Legally this is true, given that our First Amendment is extant.  But as G.K. Chesterton once said, "Having the right to do something is not at all the same as being right in doing it."  There is no moral right to an immoral opinion -- nor to one bred of emotionalism unconstrained by reason -- nor to a deceitful one. More than ever, Americans are realizing that this isn't a sentiment to which the mainstream media subscribes.  In fact, with how...

"A source of mine called to say that Obama's reached out to some newspaper publishers about giving papers a tax break in the stimulus package." "Obama pays off his base: The media." Chip Saltsman's best moment in the RNC Chairman debate last Monday was describing our current policy shift, in which winners and losers are set by the market, to a world where winners and losers are set by President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Reid.

Connecticut is considering a bailout for local papers. But government assistance always comes with a catch. In the case of government aid of newspapers, it will destroy the ability of those papers to function as watchdogs. As journalism professor Paul Janensch told Reuters, “You can’t expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it.” That’s why the news out of Connecticut is very disturbing. Two small-town papers have been in danger of being shut down because of decreasing revenue and poor management decisions. Journal Register Corp. recently had to sell the two papers, The Bristol Press and The (New...