Yamin's response to "The failing newspaper industry is hurting America's Democracy"

I’m quite troubled by your post, since you seem to contradict your own message. You do a good job of pointing out that newspapers are in fact crucial to our democracy and that “the decline in the amount of newspapers circulating in the country is due to the rise of the corporate state, and the loss of civic responsibility to inform the public.” I commend you for that message, and the acknowledgement that internet could never replace print news. You even go farther in the next paragraph, but oh, wait, what’s that you say in the end? You ask “why save a failing medium?” and “we need to embrace this new medium (the internet) and let these newspapers either die off…”

You were so right, but then you got to be so wrong. If we Americans have learned anything from allowing corporations to take over industries it’s that it harms the average citizen. Let’s take global media mogul Rupert Murdoch for example. He owns Fox, The New York Post, and many, many other newspapers and stations. The guy has immense amounts of influence, as you can see from the video on the link. He has the power to sway people’s opinions because the media outlets that he owns can spin bias on the reporting they do. The more people they can reach, the more influence they have, the less objective news you get. Is this what the media was made for?

In these economic difficulties, it’s easy to point fingers at companies and say “we don’t need that one anymore because it’s not worth saving it.” But this isn’t a car company we can do without. This is one of the most important aspects of our democracy. This is the information that you and I need in order to make informed decisions about the people that run this country and the decisions they make. The difference between watching independent news like Democracy Now and watching corporate news like Fox News is drastic, and there’s a reason why.