"Increasingly rejected in the marketplace as irrelevant, media elitist want a government bailout to keep them in business," writes Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily.

"That's the long and the short," Farah says, "of a manifesto on the subject by Leonard Downie, the former executive editor of the Washington Post, and Michael Shudson, a sociologist, in the Columbia Journalism Review this week."

One can understand why those wielding power in D.C. might prefer a compliant "Teacher's Pet" press, but do journalists realize that they're getting into? Farah writes:

Not only do good news people not need bailouts from taxpayers, it would be counterproductive. It would spell the end of the free press in America, its birthplace.

Journalism needs to be independent. The Founding Fathers understood this principle and carved out special constitutional protections for the press. The First Amendment is the only government help American journalism needs.

Go on the take from government and you become dependent on government. Go on the take from government and you become its slave. Go on the take from government and you cease to be a watchdog. Go on the take from government and you become its lapdog. Go on the take from government and you become a public relations servant of government.

Here is the "manifesto" by Downie and Shudson, titled "The Reconstruction of American Journalism."

Read the entire column by Joseph Farah here.

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