State run newspapers?

Originally posted by Melanerpes
Wouldn't it be a lot easier to control the written word?

If big brother wants to shut down a newspaper, its easy enough to find the place where they print it and close it and arrest everyone working there.

If big brother wants to shut down a website, who even knows where the server is even located? It might not even be located within the US. Why do you think its so hard to stop all the people who send out spam or viruses?

🙂

Originally posted by uzless
In Canada we have an entire television/radio station network (CBC) run by the government. It's funded by taxpayers and is used to promote canadian cultural values and moral principles while delivering top notch unbiased news and journalism. The CBC is respected worldwide and is similar to the BBC.

Why the US hasn't hopped on board is obvious; US citizens only think tax money should go to big companies as "incentives" (ie big oil)

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Originally posted by cheshirecatstevens
My local newspaper is dying, and it got me to thinking. Will there come a time in the US when small town news will be covered/delivered by the state? If so will this be a bad thing? Right now local papers are unable to make money, hell big papers are making money, so will there come a time when the government gets into the news business?

Is this something else we're suppose to be scared of?

Originally posted by bill718
Is this something else we're suppose to be scared of?

Methinks you are reading into this to much. The core part of the dicussion deals with local news and getting it to the people. The local news I was thinking about are things like school district referendums, city council, obits, and the like. I'm only asking because I don't see newspapers able to make money even if they provide a valuable service, and that would leave many local news junkies in the cold. So would you like to offer an opinion?

Originally posted by cheshirecatstevens
Methinks you are reading into this to much. The core part of the dicussion deals with local news and getting it to the people. The local news I was thinking about are things like school district referendums, city council, obits, and the like. I'm only asking because I don't see newspapers able to make money even if they provide a valuable service ...[text shortened]... d that would leave many local news junkies in the cold. So would you like to offer an opinion?

If they provided, as you say, a 'valuable service', then there would be no question about their survival.

If you value their service so much, then it is for you to do something about it, but this does not mean appealing to local guvamint to make people pay for this valuable service which they have no interest in. By 'do something' I mean donations from you of time or money.

Good luck flogging a dead horse, we're going to see a drastic reduction in hard copy with the growth of the net.

Originally posted by Wajoma
If they provided, as you say, a 'valuable service', then there would be no question about their survival.

If you value their service so much, then it is for you to do something about it, but this does not mean appealing to local guvamint to make people pay for this valuable service which they have no interest in. By 'do something' I mean donations from yo ...[text shortened]... dead horse, we're going to see a drastic reduction in hard copy with the growth of the net.

I agree with Wajoma. Newspapers consume valuable resources offering information that is more easily found using the Yahoo! search engine. Paper newspapers are not critical. Let the market decide.

Originally posted by cheshirecatstevens
Methinks you are reading into this to much. The core part of the dicussion deals with local news and getting it to the people. The local news I was thinking about are things like school district referendums, city council, obits, and the like.

Can't websites do the exact same thing?

Originally posted by Wajoma
If they provided, as you say, a 'valuable service', then there would be no question about their survival.

If [b]you value their service so much, then it is for you to do something about it, but this does not mean appealing to local guvamint to make people pay for this valuable service which they have no interest in. By 'do something' I mean don ...[text shortened]... horse[/b], we're going to see a drastic reduction in hard copy with the growth of the net.[/b]

Why the attack? I'm not advocating for it to happen. I'm merely discussing the possibility. Can you discuss? There are things that happen in the world like local news, and journalist cover it. If there isn't a local paper then these events won't get reported. I understand very well what capitalism is and I love it, so you can refrain from the attacks. ok? I'm looking for a discussion about how local news will be coverd in the future.

Originally posted by sh76
Can't websites do the exact same thing?

Yes they can and do, but local papers (print and online content) are still floundering. There just isn't money to be made covering obits and city council meetings.

Originally posted by cheshirecatstevens
Why the attack? I'm not advocating for it to happen. I'm merely discussing the possibility. Can you discuss? There are things that happen in the world like local news, and journalist cover it. If there isn't a local paper then these events won't get reported. I understand very well what capitalism is and I love it, so you can refrain from the attacks. ok? I'm looking for a discussion about how local news will be coverd in the future.

I didn't see it as an attack. If you don't like my style, no worries here. The point stands, if people don't value knowing about these local events then they should not have to support it. It seems you do assign them some value so you'll be the number one supporter.

cest la vie guy, bahala na

Originally posted by whodey
Its kinda a shame that the written word is being replaced by the web. After all, what is on the web is far more easily controlled, or can be controlled as well as monitored. It makes me a little uneasy in terms of Big Brother.

Nobody's censoring print media whodey, calm down. If you want to print up an underground resistance 'zine you still can.

You're just less likely to raise a profit...that's all. Relax.

Originally posted by cheshirecatstevens
My local newspaper is dying, and it got me to thinking. Will there come a time in the US when small town news will be covered/delivered by the state? If so will this be a bad thing? Right now local papers are unable to make money, hell big papers are making money, so will there come a time when the government gets into the news business?

I'm guessing your local newspaper does some pieces that account for whatever happens in your region and is deemed to be relevant to tbe published. I'm also guessing that your local newspaper has some pieces on national and international issues. Given that it is a local newspaper I'm guessing that it doesn't have money to have many correspondents in a national scale nor it has enough money to have correspondents on an international scale. That being the case everything that is national and international news aren't first hand accounts but merely quotes or rewritings of what's reported from bigger media.

If that's the case it seems to me that the only thing that you'll be really missing is the locally relevant events that are deemed printable by your local newspaper. Am I right?

Originally posted by adam warlock
I'm guessing your local newspaper does some pieces that account for whatever happens in your region and is deemed to be relevant to tbe published. I'm also guessing that your local newspaper has some pieces on national and international issues. Given that it is a local newspaper I'm guessing that it doesn't have money to have many correspondents in a na ...[text shortened]... e locally relevant events that are deemed printable by your local newspaper. Am I right?

Very concise and correct.

Originally posted by cheshirecatstevens
Very concise and correct.

Ok then. In that case I have to ask if local newspapers are either quoting or rewriting national and international news or publishing local news why do you think that it is important to have them in the first place?

And do you think that the government would be really interested in funding and distributing something that either is a collage of multiple other primary sources or only has a very limited interest in a population? And should it have any kind of interest?
I don't think it would.

I think that local news are very important for the communities if done right, but I don't think that any government in the world would have any interest in running them.

Originally posted by adam warlock
Ok then. In that case I have to ask if local newspapers are either quoting or rewriting national and international news or publishing local news why do you think that it is important to have them in the first place?

And do you think that the government would be really interested in funding and distributing something that either is a collage of multip ...[text shortened]... t, but I don't think that any government in the world would have any interest in running them.

"...local newspaper do some pieces that account for whatever happens in your region and is deemed to be relevant to be published" aw
Its the local coverage I'm looking for. National and international news can still be profitable just the local news isn't financially viable.