In two EconLog posts (“Canada’s Decline in Press Freedom,” August 24, 2021, and “Canada’s Decline in Press Freedom, Part 2,” December 14, 2021), I documented the fact that Canada’s federal government under Justin Trudeau was subsidizing journalism. This is an attack on press freedom. As I wrote in an article on this same issue in 1971, freedom of the press does not guarantee that someone will subsidize your press any more than freedom of speech guarantees a working larynx. When government subsidizes the press, it has to choose whom to subsidize. That’s no different in principle from levying a special tax against other members of the press.
As I noted in the December 14, 2021 post, those who got subsidized needed only one customer, the politician in charge of the program.
I recently learned that California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, started a similar program to subsidize journalism in California. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news. Because California’s government is facing a $12 billion budget deficit, Newsom is proposing to cut the state subsidy to “California newsrooms” from the promised $30 million to $10 million. It’s not enough of a cut, but it’s a step in the right direction.