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California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed a budget that bestows $25 million to the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, presumably in an effort to ensure plenty of favorable news coverage for himself and his party in the years to come.
The taxpayer cash giveaway will fund 40 fellowships a year, at $50,000 a pop, these fellows will then be dispersed to newsrooms around the Golden state where the progressive ideologies Berkeley is best known for can flower and grow.
Berkeley, the birthing entity of more radical movements than Karl Marx himself, obviously says that this program is not political at all, of course not. They say, “The greater good is advanced when we can rely on credible, local news coverage that reflects the needs and concerns of all communities.”
Let’s break down what this actually means when said by people who teach journalism. The word “credible” here means news that holds conservatives and Republicans to account for their alleged lies while ignoring or eliding anything that harms Democrats. Not only do today’s progressive media critics and academics refuse to present both sides of almost any question, they actually think showing both sides is bad.
GAVIN NEWSOM SIGNS $25 MILLION BERKELEY JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM INTO STATE BUDGET
Take this quote from Columbia Journalism Review if you don’t believe me, “In the Trump era, ‘both sides’ (or “bothsidesism”) has become shorthand for a journalistic philosophy that many media critics consider to be broken.” Or take MSNBC’s Wajahat Ali, who disdainfully Tweeted of the shake up trying to make CNN more balanced, “It’s a message for every other CNN employee: get in line, or you’re out. We do ‘both sides’ here and your job is to deliver it.” Oh no! Not both sides.
Let’s not kid ourselves. There is not the slightest bit of doubt that every one of Newsom and Berkeley’s journalism fellows will be filled to the brim with exactly this ideology, that true journalism, real journalism, is the journalism that achieves lefist outcomes.
There may have been a time when the government could trust academic and credentialing institutions with millions of dollars to pursue an unbiased public good, but if there was it has long since passed. It’s bad enough that this program will produce more little socialist soldiers in newsrooms, but think about the impact on conservative competition.
Those outlets that do not toe the biased journalistic line of Newsom and Berkeley won’t be getting any free reporters. They will actually have to pay their employees. All while walking the fine line of unfair progressive fact checkers and social media giants absurdly silencing them at every turn. This public money for left wing news is just another prong in a coordinated pincer attack on unwoke thoughts and ideas.
Look at the example of art forms like theater, that moved away en masse from a for profit model to one of government largesse. It didn’t just make the industry more liberal, it made it the tip of the spear of progressive ideology. That is exactly what Gavin Newsom and his band of California communists want to do to the news.
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This is California, so expect every Democrat would-be dictator in any governor’s mansion to replicate this illiberal and dangerous policy. And as poisonous Democrat dollars flow freely into our news outlets the truly free press will be on the outside looking in.
Only 16 percent of Americans say that they trust our news media. There are tarot card readers with storefronts in Queens who have more credibility. How can we make the problem worse? Start having the government fund it.
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Sadly, conservatives in California have not the wherewithal to stop this. But those of us in other states do. Do you want reporters on the government’s dime reporting on that same government? Or do you want free agents who can truly call it as they see it? That’s the choice here. And frankly, the answer should be obvious.
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