Yesterday, I discussed one way in which the left tries to control public access to information — inducing social media companies to censor content that left-wing “misinformation researchers” take issue with. Today, I’ll discuss another way — transferring money to support local newspapers.
On the face of it, these phenomena are very different. One restricts the amount of content available to the public; the other increases, or at least maintains, it.
Yet, I will argue that, while the restrictive measures are more pernicious, both amount to market interference intended to promote leftism. Thus, although subsidizing local newspapers is not an affront to free speech, it’s still an attempt to put a thumb — a government thumb, if Democrats get their way — on the scale of public discourse. And given the left-liberal leanings of most local papers, it’s an ideologically biased thumb.