Yesterday, Michael Kinsley wrote Washington Post op-ed rejecting the idea of government subsidies for newspapers, suggesting such a newspaper would be sadly compromised by government involvement.
Conor Clarke counters in The Atlantic that newspapers like the St. Petersburg Times exist as nonprofits without apparent difficulties. He suggests that government must close the gap between what individuals determine as the value of newspapers, and the value that society finds in newspapers.
You can read about the dispute in this article on the Washington Post website.
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Finally, Kinsely responds that, while the Clarke’s argument makes sense, it is suspect if not unconstitutional for the government to attempt to influence what people read. He contends, “Preventing you from reading something (censorship) is obviously worse than causing you to read something (via subsidy), but the latter is still troublesome.”
You can read Kinsely’s rebuttal post in The Atlantic.</em