Save the newspapers!

There has been a lot of chatter about the demise of the newspaper industry of late, along with various policy proposals from the left to prop it up.

There is a fine post from reason here, complete with a video that manages to indirectly make the important point that this is in large part a generational issue. Old people want to keep newspapers around because they are used to them. Young people don't because they don't read them anyway.

I would add three additional points:

First, the name for the political philosophy that seeks to avoid institutional change is conservatism. These days, in the US, the left is at least as conservative as the right, as it leads the charge to preserve old industries like autos and newspapers in their present form, both for narrow political reasons and, I think, because the left (like the right) is full of people who just generally fear change.

Second, the newspaper industry did not exactly highlight its role as a the great guardian of democracy during the most recent presidential campaign. It is hard to speak truth to power when you are on your knees in front of one of the candidates and your mouth is full.

Third, almost all of this discussion ignores the history of the American newspaper industry. The animating ideology of professional objectivity and public service that has been put forth by highbrow print journalists as differentiating them from the on-line and cable masses is only a few decades old. During the most lively period of American democracy, things looked a lot more like the chaotic intellectual foodfight that is the internet and cable than like the staid pages of the mid-century NYT or WaPo. I think we'll be just fine on this score. Indeed, given that the highbrow media never actually were objective (and were often just carrying water for those in power), I think we are better off with multiple views that are clearly and obviously different than with one view that pretends to be objective but is not. One might even call this transformation change we can believe in.

I think this post from newser rather sums it all up.