Reuters website goes behind paywall in new strategy
Quality journalism will become a commodity for the wealthy.<p>Reputable news platforms are moving behind paywalls, while propaganda&#x2F;quasi-propaganda networks remain free.<p>This is bad for society, for politics, and in the long term for our way of life.<p>It is not reasonable to expect the average person to validate the news they see on low quality news platforms by cross checking with other sources, even if quality sources were free, which they are increasingly not.<p>I see only one sustainable solution. A public news organization, paid out of the federal government budget, with your and my taxes. Like PBS, but with 50x the budget.<p>As the Trump years have shown, misinformation and the distortion of facts can have real life, hard consequences. Trump owes his 2016 victory to 80,000 votes in three states. How likely is it that his democratic opponent would have won had the social media storm of combined conservative-Russian propaganda been a degree or two lower? Extremely likely.<p>Four years later, half a million Americans have died because of Covid-19. This would not be the case if the 2016 election had turned out differently.<p>To circle back to the original topic. The paywalling of quality journalism is detrimental to society, and the consequences of this trend can and have already led to the unnecessary deaths of thousands of people.