News for Free

Dear Reader,

Americans, more than the residents of most other developed nations, have an automatic suspicion of the state, and American journalists have their own version of this. Our country didn’t create a public media system until the 1960s, preferring to let privately owned companies provide Americans with journalism. Our system is still proportionally smaller than most other countries’, especially in television. And even so, it has been a target of government officials almost from the start—particularly right now. Why venture into a perilous territory by enhancing our public media system.

Joel Simon, veteran journalist and former head of the Committee to Protect Journalists, has shared the profession’s concern about the dangers of government’s involvement in journalism, but the devastating decline of market-supported journalism has led him to reconsider. News for Free, his third book for Columbia Global Reports, is a serious global look at the advantages and disadvantages of public media. Simon traveled all over the country—to, among other places, New Hampshire, Texas, Oregon, and New York—and also to Britain, South Korea, and Denmark, to talk to people in the public media sector. The result is a clear-eyed and realistic assessment, harboring no illusions about magic solutions. But, in the end, Simon believes that a greater American commitment to public media is the best available answer right now, and he suggests specifically what form this commitment might take. News for Free is a call to action. Like everything we publish, we hope it starts a conversation and has an effect.

Best,

Nicholas Lemann
Director, Columbia Global Reports