Public Subsidies No Cure For Journalism

[Commentary] Despite his reliance on National Public Radio, Jessell is troubled by the idea of the federal government pumping more money into public media, particularly the local variety. He doesn't see publicly-funded media as the solution to our journalism woes. For one thing, public media cannot be the counterbalance to government at any level, a terribly important role for journalism in sustaining democracy in any age. The watchdog of the government cannot rely on government for a good portion of its care and feeding. Journalists covering government must maintain their independence. It also seems that handing over more government cash to public media so that they can do more local reporting would simply aggravate the troubles of the local legacy media. The last thing newspapers and TV stations need right now is more competition for the attention of consumers and for the marketing dollars of businesses. (Those underwriting dollars that public stations boast of are advertising dollars in disguise.)