In CJR, WaPo vet Len Downie and Columbia J-School Professor Michael Schudson provide thorough treatment of the state of journalism. While I don’t agree with all their recommendations, I couldn’t agree more with what I see has their underlying premise:
The days of a kind of news media paternalism or patronage that produced journalism in the public interest, whether or not it contributed to the bottom line, are largely gone. American society must take some collective responsibility for supporting independent news reporting in this new environment-as society has, at mjch greater expense, for pub lic needs like education, health care, scientific advancement, and cultural preservation…
