Presumably, many who work or have worked in the news industry are perplexed by a decision made by two-year old Carrboro Citizen weekly to take (and the Carrboro Town Council should be pilloried, but probably not in the Carrboro Citizen, for offering) public funds in order to nearly double its weekly circulation. This is where common sense isn’t playing a role.
If newspapers are apparently dying and this independent news organization is in its infancy stage, is there enough evidence to prove the quality of the newsweekly is worth preserving with the use of public funds? You would think that if they were doing remarkably well in the very beginning of their existence, then they wouldn’t need to immediately lean on the government to support them. Even banks are trying to get rid of overburdening government assistance. While the newsweekly may be “growing,” it was to my understanding the government was imparting this money into failing organizations and businesses. Guess money will just keep falling off of trees no matter if you’re succeeding or failing.
And we won’t even bother discussing that whole irritating trivial thing about the 1st Amendment to the constitution dealing with “Freedom of the Press.”
What’s most troubling for me is the fact that the interest rate that the Town is charging on the loan is only 2%. That’s probably about a quarter of the rate they would pay if they went to a bank.
So we have government now undercutting the private market in a business government shouldn’t even be in.
Nothing like the People’s Republic of Carrboro to not only attempt kill freedom of the press, but the free market as well in one swoop.