Filed under: Journalism | Tags: Alastair Darling, Bailout, Banks, Business Secretary, Charlie Beckett, Government, John Nicol, Media, Motor industry, newspapers, Peter Mandelson, Press, Press Gazette, Robert MsChesney, Twitter, US
Newspaper stand from laffy4k on Flickr
The Government has bailed out the banks and is working on a package for the motor industry, so what next? Some people have suggested newspapers should also receive a lump sum from Alastair Darling’s pot.
This idea was rejected by the Business Secretary Peter Mandelson earlier this month.
The Press Gazette reported that he said:
“I don’t think that government subsidies are the right way forward.
“But where we can help in maintaining public sector advertising and applying cross media competition rules, we should certainly consider doing so.”
At the time I thought “why shouldn’t the Government help out the struggling industry?” I, like many others, do not want to see it go under. And I’m sure this sentiment is not just echoed by those in the industry. Other people will also be sorry to see some titles disappearing.
But I was reading this article by Charlie Beckett - which I was directed to through Twitter- in which he discusses John Nicol and Robert McChesney’s argument that the US government should bail out their media and I started to think about the idea.
As I have already stated, other industries have been helped out by the Government, why shouldn’t newspapers? We always hear of the public interest argument when papers print something controversial and they do (if not always) serve the public.
The media is the fourth estate, playing a very valuable role in society and although it doesn’t always write what the Government wants, it also provides a lot of publicity for the Government. After all, if journalists didn’t write about new Government policies and decisions and papers didn’t publish them, who would?
But the problem is that were the press to accept a handout, then they could not really be said to be a “free” press, something which was fought so hard for years ago. If the press accepted money from central Government then it would have a loyalty to the Government which would affect its ability to hold them to account.
The only problem now is where the struggling newspapers will get a much needed boost from.
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