When taxes give reporters bread

IN JUNE, THE NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE  invested $5 million in local news initiatives . . . In other countries, this wouldn’t be news. Per capita, Western countries spend an average of $86 annually on public broadcasting, but in the U.S. that number is about $3. The distaste for government money in journalism runs on both sides. American journalists tend to bristle at the idea; terms like “state-run media” get thrown around.  CJR

When taxes give reporters bread,

objectivity is dead;

writers then are maleable

to opinions fallible.

Starving journalists do mean

that their consciences are clean.