I am a proud graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism but I am disgusted at the current state of my chosen major. Nothing should be more appalling to any journalist, or any U.S. citizen for that matter, then the prospect of more government involvement in the news business.

Consider the Federal Trade Commission’s “Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism.” A government agency suggesting the “reinvention” of news should frighten everyone. Freedom of the press is under attack.  Under the false premise of wanting to help journalism find a sustainable business model, the FTC actually wants more control over news gathering and dissemination including:

• industry “licensing” with “government’s help and support”
• “creation of government fostered pilot programs” to explore new business models
• a journalism division of Americorps
• more funding for public broadcasting
• grants to universities for “investigative journalism”

One big question comes to mind.  When government is controls the funding for journalism, who will be left to investigate government? What a disappointment we must be to our Founders.

There is no way to overreact to this “Discussion Draft.” As someone with a deep love for the First Amendment, I can only hope that the citizenry will muscle some collective outrage and bring a halt to the nationalization of information.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 6th, 2010 at 10:16 am and is filed under People's Press Collective, first amendment, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.