I thought I’d change the title of this occasional series for this post. I see that Timmy has picked up on the egregious little shit’s latest wheeze. Stealing our money and trousering it.
One possible solution is public subsidy for the whole media industry, whether or not it is for profit.
NO!!!! Absolutely not. Under no circumstances whatsoever. These people peddle lies and misinformation. They have been caught doing it repeatedly. That is why they are dying on their feet. That is why they are being laid off. They are untrustworthy – almost as untrustworthy as politicians and that’s saying something. Also, let’s be clear here – Jones is not a journalist. He is an opinion monger. Nothing more, nothing less. He uses his platform to peddle nasty hate-ridden intersectional politics, labelling anyone who disagrees with him as “far right” and doing what he can to get them de-platformed as happened recently to Jonaya. These charlatans should not, under any circumstances, be on the receiving end of taxpayers’ money. If the traditional media dies, then good riddance, for someone else will pick up where they left off and, frankly, they cannot be any worse.
Here’s another idea. The veteran US media reformer Robert McChesney has proposed that such a subsidy could be democratised. Every citizen would be given an allowance of $200 a year to donate to a single publication, or spread across multiple publications. It’s an idea that’s been further developed by British media activist Leo Watkins.
It’s a dreadful idea. It’s an idea that we should reject out of hand. However, how about this – as Timmy has also suggested – just give us back the £200 and let us decide how we will spend it. You can be damned sure I won’t be spending it on Owen Jones and his mates.
Sure, it’s a radical idea. But with the media in a death spiral – and with Britain’s print press the least trusted in Europe – a wide-ranging debate about where to go next is long overdue. Our democracy faces an existential crisis: but with imagination, it can be rebuilt.
What we see here is the kind of shroud waving that always happens when an industry is facing extinction in the face of new tech. Well, fuck off and die. And good riddance to you and the flea-bitten horse you rode into town on. Something new will rise from the ashes – hopefully devoid of Owen Jones.
What’s dying, and not before time, is the establishment media. And it’s not because people don’t don’t value keeping with current events. It’s that people are rapidly losing any sort of trust in them.
He says this in the very same article where he wants it to be taxpayer subsidised.
Yes, indeed. The irony did not escape me.
Presumably the subsidies will make it more trusted.
Presumably…
It would be a bad idea even if we were losing something of value. I haven’t bought a newspaper since the 1980s. Out of curiosity I sometimes take a look at the front pages on display in the shops, nothing but mindless trivia usually.
If they cannot survive without people buying their produce than democracy has spoken and democracy says “fuck off!”
“One possible solution is public subsidy for the whole media industry, whether or not it is for profit”
Canada’s PM Trudeau has done this – given taxpayers money to all media
The Rebel Media said “No thanks”
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is continuing her campaign to silence The Rebel Media — so we’ll see her in court on March 15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_VXcIv1NqA
Any decent and reputable news agency would refuse such money.
‘Decent and reputable’? Seriously? Ain’t no such animal. Especially over here in Canada. The coverage on the current scandal of Trudeau’s government is abysmal. Google SNC-Lavellin scandal.
Rebel Media?
@Bill
“The coverage on the current scandal of Trudeau’s government is abysmal”
Yes, because Trudeau bought their silence using taxpayers money
Rebel Media:
Andrew Lawton, a fellow with the True North Initiative, joined me to talk more about the SNC-Lavalin scandal and the accusation that the PMO may have tried to interfere with the prosecution of the liberal-connected company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Z6o4LG-fo
That’s how I found out. Them and the Globe and Mail. The TV Media are only now picking up the slack.
So, basically like a TV Licence for the dead tree press. With the twist that you don’t even have to read a newspaper before you have to pay up.
Have I got that right?
Yup.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right.
He wants to take £300 or £400 off me, channel it though various Whitehall departments, syphoning off a little each time, then make me a gift of £200 (which he tells me how to spend).
That’s rather generous of him, don’t you think? 😉
Very generous, I thought.
Would that make all the press a charity / charities?
Like all those other “charities” that exist purely on taxpayers money and whose sole object is to lobby for the money to keep coming.
And how do they limit the number of fresh snouts in this trough?
As long as little Owen has his snout in the trough, he won’t care.
So what happens when the public take their $200 and opts to spend it on Modern Nazi monthly or that mag that Al-Qaeda puts out? will Owen Jones et al be OK with that or will there be some law about only spending it on
approvedie progressive publications?stupid bloody idea,like any product if the public wants it and is willing to pay for it then it will thrive otherwise it wont.