Why Journalists Shouldn’t Resist Public Funds

Many journalists are predisposed to believe that government can be part of the solution to plenty of societal ills, but not the one threatening their livelihoods – the contraction of quality news reporting across the country, and overseas, resulting from the implosion of previously viable business models for such endeavors. As a tribe, journalists abhor the idea that government should enact any new laws or reallocate any federal funding in response to these changes.

The aversion is admirable, rooted in concerns that state action, almost by definition, encroaches on press freedom. …