New Jersey Votes to Fund the Media

[rangerrebew]

New Jersey Votes to Fund the Media

In the liberal mind, the way to prove you value something is by funding it with taxpayer money. So if you love journalism, you take taxpayer money and give it to journalists.

It is a sacred mantra of the left that corporate funding of media inevitably results in a pro-corporate media bias. Consistency would dictate that government funding of media would lead to a pro-government bias.

Not in New Jersey. The idea of the press as a check and a balance on government has just been placed on the Jersey Turnpike and squashed to pieces.
 
Source URL: https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/l-brent-bozell-iii/new-jersey-votes-fund-media

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Thank you for this, RR. Didn't see this anywhere else. There were rumblings about "newspaper bailouts" back in the late oughts when it looked like newspapers were going out of business in mass. Somehow they survived though, like rats.

[Gefn]

NJ PING
 @Concerned

[Concerned]

NJ PING
 @Concerned

Thanks @Freya

I hadn't seen this.  No wonder our taxes are so high with this kind of nonsense.  Here's another summary with some more detail on exactly where this waste of money is going:

The state of New Jersey thinks it’s found the secret to making the desert bloom: A $5 million subsidy for a university-led consortium that will dispense grants for local news coverage. “Never before has a state taken the lead to address the growing crisis in local news,” said Mike Rispoli of the Free Press Action Fund, the advocacy group that advanced the consortium idea. “Trustworthy local journalism is the lifeblood of democracy; it allows people to participate meaningfully in decisions regarding local elections, public schools and policy decisions.”

If you think $5 million won’t go very far in a state the size, and with the corruption problems, of New Jersey, you’re right. The original Free Press Action Fund pitch was for $100 million, which was then whittled down to $20 million before it reached its current size. The project also seems barnacled with bureaucracy. According to NJBiz, a staff of four will be hired to oversee the non-profit program while taking direction from a 13-member board of directors chosen by the governor, the legislature, five participating universities and others. Grants will go only to organizations that collaborate with one of the universities, or community, media and technology organizations affiliated with the consortium.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/06/the-state-of-new-jersey-wants-to-subsidize-news-uh-oh-218952