Having spent most of my adult life in “the media,” I can confirm what might not be obvious: The news business is not a good short-term financial investment.
The days when paid advertising and subscriptions could sustain operations and pay a team of real reporters and editors are long gone. That’s bad news for humanity.
We are seeing more bad decisions including acts of violence that are based on information that is neither authoritative nor fact-based.
Today, your favorite “news” platform [except WorldTribune.com] likely employs a relative handful of stressed “journalists” who are not free to report the “truth” as they know it and are expected to produce quantity, not quality “news.” They are paid for their ability to discern and deliver what their funding source is looking for and live in fear of getting it wrong.
A few of us can still remember a time when such newsroom dynamics were unthinkable.
The consolidation of news operations and advertising networks made commercial survival difficult for local and medium sized companies. The monopolistic juggernaut of social media platforms has been the last straw especially after they began using their enormous unchecked power to censor editorial content.
Today, most “news” organizations are subsidized by moneyed interests with principles and ideals that have little to do with freedom of the press as protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The result is a crisis both for the news media and for nations whose best interests are not being served.
Many advisors at Free Press Foundation and other colleagues know real journalists who could not in good conscience publish their sponsors’ messages disguised as the objective truth. Some have literally lost their livelihoods because their integrity as news professionals was not for sale. For us, this state of affairs is personal. More importantly it poses a threat American exceptionalism with global implications.
This 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization exists to support and such journalists and train their successors. Furthermore, we are confident that in the long term the market will support publishers aligned with the precepts stated at FreePressFoundation.org. I look forward to discussing these issues in person. Don’t hesitate to get in touch.
In the meantime, thank you in advance for supporting our work with your generous tax-deductible contribution!
Robert Morton, Chairman
Free Press Foundation