AOL News ran an op-ed by Senior Fellow David Westphal on whether government should support journalism. “In a report issued at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, my colleague Geoffrey Cowan and I concluded that federal, state and local governments have contributed billions of dollars a year to the commercial news business,” Westphal wrote. “Is there a role for the government in helping ensure that citizens continue to get the news and information they need in American democracy? One popular response is no; government has no place in subsidizing the news business. Our findings disagree: It has always taken a place, even before the country was founded.”