Okay, it's not the Washington Post literally, but a commission headed by Leonard Downie Jr., the Post's former executive editor, wants taxpayers to subsidize the Washington Post and other comparable papers. There is an argument that the media perform a public service by informing the public exposing corruption, and therefore deserve public support, but it would be hard to make this case for many existing news outlets. It would be a simple matter to construct a system that involved taxpayer subsidies in which the taxpayers themselves decided where their money goes, instead of that choice being made by "smart" people like Mr. Downie. Unfortunately, the people currently in control of the media in the United States have little interest in publicizing more democratically based alternatives.
--Dean Baker
