Apparently “what’s required for serious — which is to say expensive-to-produce — journalism to survive is that all the quality English-language papers and news sites agree to charge for Web access and then mercilessly sue anyone who makes more than fair use of their work without paying a fee.”
That’s according to the Tim Rutten on the LA Times. Nothing like self interest to bring out the rhetorical best in a journalist – “Unless that imbalance is reduced, all but a few quality papers will disappear. For its part, Congress needs to move quickly to grant the newspaper industry at least a temporary exemption from antitrust and price-fixing laws so that publishers and proprietors can, in essence, collude for survival.”
The notion of the free market apparently doesn’t apply to journalism because it so damn essential to a functioning democracy (like the US). Tim adds – “American papers had combined revenues of $34.7 billion from the advertising in their print editions last year” – I reckon that little number has got more to do with Tim’s opinion than any crap about the mythical fourth estate. Any bets that the government will give in to the monopoly capitalist? No? Didn’t think so, what a farce!
