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Market threatens free press

The Spokesman-Review

As a loyal, 54-year subscriber to The Spokesman-Review, I agree with James Madison, who insisted the First Amendment include protection for a free and independent press when he remarked: “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.” His friend, Tom Jefferson, added: “When the press is free, and every man able to read, all is well.”

In expressing their lofty ideals, could Madison or Jefferson have imagined that “knowledge” conveyed by the press to the public would be subject to the vagaries of the marketplace – that probing, costly reporting by exceptional journalists like Karen Dorn Steele would be lost with a decline in advertising revenue? The best investigative reporting is now found in truly independent, nonprofit media.

With an education system that fails to prepare students for responsible citizenship, and a mainstream media failing to adequately inform the public, when Bill O’Reilly has more influence than Bill Moyers, and Rush Limbaugh than Amy Goodman, the future of democracy in America is not assured.

Buell Hollister

Spokane

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