Letters and Comments

Press, Like Religion, Should Be Off Limits to Government Support

By U.S. News Staff

October 20, 2009 RSS Feed Print
  • Comment (1)

The First Amendment is there for a reason: There should no more be government support for press entities than there should be for religious entities.

Todd of PA in response to Peter Roff:
No Fed Help for Press, Please

Reader Comments Read all comments (1)

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The First Amendment says nothing about government support of the press. It only says the freedom of the press shall not be abridged. By contrast, there are two clauses regarding religion: The Establishment Clause ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion") and the Free Exercise Clause ("or abridging the free exercise thereof")

In the US, the government supports both NPR and PBS, and these are the best broadcast news media in America. The quality of the news reports is far above any of the broadcast or cable news outlets. Much the same can be said of the BBC, which gets support from the British government. These media don't engage in the race to the bottom that the commercial broadcast and especially cable outlets do.

We don't need less government-supported media -- we need more of it.

John Franson of KS 4:38PM October 21, 2009

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