Study: More Gov't Funding Of The Press, Less Political Corruption Reporting

from the questions-abound-however dept

There's been some talk of having the government bail out newspapers or somehow fundamentally support newspapers. Of course, for good reason, that scares a lot of people who believe that news organizations (not just newspapers, mind you) play an important role in acting as a government corruption watchdog. So it's interesting to see a new study that found that the more government support the press gets, the less they covered government scandals. Of course, this is a correlation -- so it's entirely possible that governments that support the press are simply less corrupt and less prone to scandal. However, the study did look at the timing of gov't funding as compared to press coverage which suggests that there might be a causal relationship, as the lower incidence of press coverage for gov't scandals tended to lag funding slightly. There are still some questions, but this certainly suggests that if you believe news organizations are important in holding government accountable, pushing for gov't support may not be a good idea.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: corruption, government funding, reporting


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2009 @ 7:57pm

    post hoc ergo propter hoc?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Jerry, 30 Dec 2013 @ 7:57am

      Re:

      Exactly. And not only do they speak Spanish in Argentina, but it's in the southern Hemisphere ~

      And, the BBC.

      And, not only have the broadcast companies always gotten their frequencies nearly free, but now the FCC doesn't even enforce the requirement that they provide a public service or be of general benefit to the people. No, do not conceptualize print independent of broadcast; it has not been for nearly 100 years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Book_(FCC)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jake, 27 Oct 2009 @ 8:45pm

    Quick point of clarification: The case study cited in the link is talking about buying advertising space in the media, rather than explicitly tax-funded media outlets like NPR or the BBC. The author of the blog post emphasises that in the third comment.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Pwdrskir (profile), 27 Oct 2009 @ 9:32pm

    Bad idea

    “…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” would take on a whole new meaning. Companies would lobby congress to suppress stories related to their company. Can you imagine the increase in lobbying this would bring.

    Congressional representatives would hold the power of the purse over news organizations which is a built in “check” mechanism for congress to hold those receiving funds accountable. Checkmate.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Sean T Henry (profile), 28 Oct 2009 @ 7:28am

      Re: Bad idea

      "Companies would lobby congress to suppress stories related to their company. Can you imagine the increase in lobbying this would bring."

      At least their time and money would be well waisted, there are worse things they could be lobbying for/against. Also if they would do that to suppress stories in that way the main stream media will suffer and internet based news will more easily push to the forefront.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2009 @ 10:11am

        Re: Re: Bad idea

        At least their time and money would be well waisted,

        Yeah, because everyone knows that members of Congress ignore lobbyists, huh?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2009 @ 8:58am

    penis

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.