The Ultimate Man-Bites-Dog News Story

[Commentary] A strange thing happened in Washington earlier this month: After spending two years studying an issue, a federal agency published a 475-page report documenting the problem only to announce that government is not the solution.

"Just because we have identified a problem does not mean we can solve it," said Steven Waldman, the lead researcher for the agency. "We did not feel we had to show some big regulatory pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to prove this work had value." This act of government humility was committed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which as part of its mandate to oversee broadband access and its effects analyzed the sharp decline in news reporting at the state and local levels. The Internet led to this decline by undermining the business models of local newspapers. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski set expectations for new policies when he announced this study and chose as his adviser Waldman. But Waldman says he and Chairman Genachowski concluded that "the First Amendment circumscribes the role government can play in improving local news" and that in any case "government is simply not the main player in this drama."

This does have one downside. Because journalists do not experience the burdens of being highly regulated, they often have too much faith in regulation as the answer to problems in other sectors. The modesty of the FCC in leaving the local news industry alone is a reminder that the government that governs least governs best.