“Oh no. Journalism can’t be publicly funded. Journalism is all about speaking ‘truth to power.’ If it’s funded by the government, it will lead to Orwellian totalitarianism.” I get the objection. But we are in an era where we are going to need our government to address some fundamental needs. The choice is to tackle this together or just give up. Nonprofits and volunteers are not going to replace $20 billion in lost annual revenue among local news providers. Either we find a way to provide local journalism publicly or it dies.
