The business distress (more or less) of Canada’s newspapers has been turned into an appeal for federal government money — as much as $400 million — to sustain “democracy and trust” by an Ottawa think tank. The Public Policy Forum recommends that the CBC online news service be stripped of advertising and that it be required to engage in “civic-function journalism” whatever that may be. At first blush it really does sound like people complaining about the competition. Are the old newspapers the guardians of democracy? Can we bring back all the newspapers that died because of television news? There doesn’t appear to be any suggestion in this report that Twitter and Facebook go away. Public Policy Forum
