So much for that dream.

Flying Squid@lemmy.world to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 2683 points –
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Just curious --- how would you like this to work? If you want high quality journalism, you need to pay journalists.

You can pay them through ads, but 1) this is annoying, and 2) people just install ad blockers.

You can have state-sponsored media, which can work reasonably well...or can end up a propaganda machine.

Or...you can pay.

Journalism is not a crazy lucrative career for most. Financially, most of the folks writing for NYT would be better off in PR --- and I don't think that's a good thing for society.

Or you can have voluntary sponsorship like NPR has done for decades and has high quality journalism because of it. Yes, they get a tiny bit of government money. Nowhere near enough to operate on. And they get corporate sponsors. Who they report against when they have a story about.

Sadly, NPR is nowhere near as unbiased as they used to be. I listened to it recently, and it's just not good anymore. They engage in both sides whataboutism, only ask softball questions, and generally seem to toe the line of appearing neutral but not risking their corporate funding.

Now, if they didn't need corporate funding, that would be ideal. I believe that would lead to more unbiased reporting.

So I haven’t seen any of what you are talking about, and I’m an avid consumer of NPR. I love that they generally avoid rage bait and present the news in a calm yet accurate manner.

That being said, I am open to being persuaded if you can present some solid evidence.

As a paying NYT subscriber, I'd just like to add that unfortunately they still advertise to me.

Adverts have been in newspapers since forever. They're giving you the full experience.

You need to earn my trust if you want me to pay.

Many of these legacy media outlets are demanding Netflix-level fees for fanfic-level content.

The NYT is one of the biggest, most recognised publications worldwide. If they don't meet your requirements, I don't think that's a realistic expectation

I think many people also don't understand the difference between opinion and reporting. You can despise the opinion section of NYT, or WSJ, or whatever, but still respect the reporting.

I question a lot of the choices they've made in the opinion section, and which letters from politicians to publish, but it can't be understated that OP/EDs are totally separate from everything else.

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