The Jeremiad Over Journalism

detrimental to several American news outlets within the past 15-20 years not least the Los Angeles
Times. 637
Hence, one can presently detect a slight tendency among American media scholars to advocate a
―Scandinaviazation,‖ meaning increased direct or indirect media subsidies, on the United States‘
media market. 638 This American scholarly focus is a testament to the importance of continually
cultivating a sense of public service in national media at both the grassroots and
ownership/leadership level. As Downie and Kaiser note with a tinge of nostalgia, ―a great news
organization is difficult to build, and tragically easy to disassemble.‖ 639
As a result of conscious government policy and journalistic professionalism, it turns out that
presently the jeremiad over journalism is just that. A jeremiad. The Danish publicist ideals nurtured
by the state has curtailed commercial influence, and thereby important aspect of the perceived
negative Americanization, in important ways. The Danish jeremiad over journalism thereby actually
leaves a little room for optimism. And as the American Professor Andrew Delbanco reminds us,
―Reading those old laments has a certain therapeutic value, since it turns out that everything
we think today has been thought before - especially the dark thought that the world is in
unprecedented trouble.‖ 640
637 Ibid. Page 734-736. Also Auletta, Backstory: Inside the Business of News. Page 64-65. According to Ken Auletta the
Los Angeles Times‘ focus on synergy between business and journalism, for example, has people in the newspaper
business worried about the the pursuit of truth as an ideal..
638 McChesney and Nichols, The Death and Life of American Journalism. Page 228. ―To our view, many of the best
ideas come from countries other than the United States. This book has sampled liberally from them, urging Americans
to borrow from the experience and wisdom of Canada, Britain, Denmark and all the outher countries that have invested
more aggressively and extensively in public media than has the United States.‖ Also Schudson and Jr., "The
Reconstruction of American Journalism." Page 85.The authors implicitly use Denmark and Finland as an example when
they write, ―The approximately $400 million that Congress currently appropriates for the CPB each year is far less per
capita than public broadcasting support in countries with comparable economies—roughly $1.35 per capita for the
United States, compared to about $25 in Canada, Australia, and Germany, nearly $60 in Japan, $80 in Britain, and more
than $100 in Denmark and Finland.‖ See also Nordenson, "The Uncle Sam Solution: Can the Government Help the
Press? Should It?." Page 40.
639 Jr. and Kaiser, The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril. Page 262. Downie Jr. and Kaiser point to
CBS and the Philadelphia Inquirer as examples that ―bad things can happen to good newsrooms.‖
640 Andrew Delbanco, The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope (Cambridge, Massachussets: Harvard
University Press, 2000; reprint, Second printing). Page 83-87-
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