Carrboro, NC yesterday voted to withdraw $50,000 from the town's economic development fund to finance an expansion of the North Carolina town's weekly newspaper, The Carrboro Citizen.
Among other things,the money will be used to hire more employees in the editorial department. Publisher Robert Dickson sees no problem with local government bankrolling the paper's department responsible for government oversight and accountability:
[Dickson]bristles at any suggestion he would sacrifice integrity by accepting public money. Dickson likens it to The News & Observer and other media accepting advertising from politicians and sports teams that they cover.Carrboro's mayor also had no problem with $50,000 in Carrboro's economic development fund going to bailout the local newspaper:
"Newspapers do business with people they have to report on," he said. "It's a fact of life."
Mayor Mark Chilton said, "There's no opportunity for the town to use the relationship to get an outcome they might want in the media."That's not really the point. The absence of a clear quid pro quot doesn't justify direct government support for the press.
How likely are these editorial board writers to bite the hand that gave them their job when time comes to expose or report a story embarrassing or damaging to local government? And that's to say nothing of the fundamental conflict of interest.
It's understandable for the local mayor and Publisher to justify the loan as boosting the local economy, and it very well might. But once you start down that road of government entaglement in the press, where does it stop?
Jean Folkerts, dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said the relationship could raise questions.Full article here.
"I am always concerned about the news business being tied to government support," she said. "While it often may seem benign, and indeed seem magnanimous, it is indeed a step down a slippery slope."
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