Kevin Drum: The Public's Right to Know
Interesting link from Kevin Drum on one of the consequences of the decline in traditional newspaper reporting budgets — newspapers are less likely to file lawsuits to obtain information from public bodies.
Drum wraps up with a sentence that tickled me somewhat:
In the great power struggle between government secrecy and the public’s right to know, the demise of the newspaper industry is a victory for the bad guys.
Well, of course. It’s because we let the bad guys — hi, Rupert! — buy up the entire newspaper industry.
Your Comments
John writes:
Interesting article in yesterday’s Crikey about this: An important investigative article, ultimately published in the NYT magazine, was funded by a small consortium of not-for-profit organisations, because NYT would not have been able to raise the—alleged—$US400,000 the story would have cost (a two year investigation into allegations of euthanasia following Hurricane Katrina).
The Crikey writer ponders whether this might be the new model for investigative journalism.
It seems that the Crikey article is freely accessible
Posted: 2 09 2009 - 08:02 | Permanent link to this comment
Nick Caldwell writes:
Yeah, I’ve been thinking for a while that the fourth-estate function of journalism is best resourced and funded through not-for-profit organisations.
After all, isn’t the standard narrative of the golden age of print journalism about how the US 19th C bandit capitalists sunk money into newspapers for the prestige rather than the return?
Posted: 2 09 2009 - 08:32 | Permanent link to this comment