Can a Sin Tax on Mindless Media Save Journalism?

When CNN and Twitter Are Polluting Public Discourse, an Economic Incentive Could Stanch the Flow of Misinformation

As long as Silicon Valley and its futuristic technologies dominate our politics, we’re doomed to be stuck in the past.

The big story of the poisonous 2016 elections was how new digital media tools ended up crowding out two big topics from our conversation: the present and the future.

This phenomenon went way beyond the controversy about “fake news” on Facebook; the problem wasn’t just media quality—but excessive quantity. California and the entire country were deluged by digital tidal waves of data and information from months, years, and decades ago.

Many …