Texas needs world class journalism. Eventually we need a news outlet rivaling the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. It is possible to begin this project without spending billions of dollars. Using the internet for publishing will minimize cost. People are having trouble making money presenting news on the internet. Perhaps the key is to run a non-profit news organization, like ProPublica (http://www.propublica.org/). A profitable new organization will have to be privately held to maintain integrity. When a news organization is publicly traded, it will be purchased and silenced. So if it becomes influential, the corrupting influences in America will buy the publicly traded news organization and turn it into a propaganda organ.
Keep an eye on ProPublica. It started slowly, but it is maturing and improving. You can recommend an alternative media outlet in a comment. I am looking at Break the Matrix (http://www.breakthematrix.com/), but I have not yet formed an opinion on it.
Another thought to consider for creating a new journalistic enterprise is to model it after the Open Source Software movement: highly skilled, trained, and motivated individuals contributing their efforts for free. With a sufficiently educated population, it will be possible to have many competent, informed, amateur journalists contributing work. Some organization is needed to pull together the content, but this is possible.
The Texas Journalism Project could be a topic of study and experimentation at journalism schools in Texas. We have strong journalism programs in Texas. The Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism at the University of North Texas, in Denton, is very active. They have a student produced magazine, Cover, they have a separate Mayborn magazine, and an excellent annual conference, The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest. The DFW metroplex is lucky to have a program like the Mayborn.
American democracy needs good journalism, but good journalism is disappearing as big business buys the media, silences investigative reporting, and promotes corporate propaganda. For Texas to achieve greatness, it needs great journalism.
Robert Canright
remember: TBAR is the Texas Business and Arts Renaissance
Other articles that are part of the Texas Journalism Project
Dallas Morning News and Texas Publishing Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Is the Press Our Enemy? Tuesday, July 4, 2017
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