The Jeremiad Over Journalism

magazines, favorable tax regulations and distribution subsidies continued from the 1970‘s into the
subsequent decades. 281
The Danish policy towards media subsidies was inspired by international examples, but it was not
(recent) examples from the United States that were seen as an example to follow. In an article from
1980 written on ―the threshold of the media commission,‖ journalist and media historian Erik Lund
compared foreign examples of media subsidy that Danish journalists could relate ―positively or
negatively to.‖ In his article Lund argued that media subsidies in Denmark were regarded as
necessary to sustain a ―differentiated press,‖ and then went on to compare Denmark with the United
States, England, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Taking the American 1947 Commission on the
Freedom of the Press as an example, Lund argued that a similar Danish commission should find its
mandate within the commissions‘ social responsibility theory, which advocated the press‘ moral
role within greater society. 282 However, the American media market had shifted significantly
between the late 1940‘s and the early 1980‘s. By the time of Lund‘s writings few, if any, Danish
media advisors saw the contemporary American media market as an example to follow. The
approach advocated by Lund based on the American commission was markedly different, and much
less commercially oriented, than the one espoused by FCC chairman Mark Fowler in 1981 and 1982
in which ―communications policy should be directed toward maximizing the services the public
desires.‖ In the United States, as we have seen in chapter 2, television was simply to be regarded as
―a toaster with pictures.‖ 283
The tension between government subsidies and commercial influence was also apparent in Danish
media debates in the 1980‘s where discussions raged regarding the Danish Broadcast Service‘s
monopoly over Danish television and the press‘ role in society. Generally, however, Danish
journalists and politicians agreed that the press held a unique position in society worthy of subsidy
and consequently looked more to Northern European models of media subsidies. 284 Because of this
schism between Northern European and American notions of media subsidies the commercial
281 Henrik Kaufholz, "Sådan Kan Nye Blade Hjælpes Økonomisk [New Newspapers Can Be Helped Like This],"
Journalisten, March 1980. Page 8. See also Lund and Sepstrup, "Udredning Af Den Fremtidige Offentlige Mediestøtte
[A Report on the Future of State Media Subsidies]." Page 15-16.
282 Erik Lund, "Modeller, Metoder Og Resultater Fra Kommissioner Og Kommissorier [Models, Methods and Results
from Commissions and Mandates]," Journalisten, March 1980. Page 9.
283 Fowler and Brenner, "A Marketplace Approach to Broadcast Regulation." Page 209. See also Horwitz, The Irony of
Regulatory Reform: The Deregulation of American Telecommunications. Page 245.
284 Lund, "Modeller, Metoder Og Resultater Fra Kommissioner Og Kommissorier [Models, Methods and Results from
Commissions and Mandates]." Page 9. See also Lund and Sepstrup, "Udredning Af Den Fremtidige Offentlige
Mediestøtte [A Report on the Future of State Media Subsidies]." Page 104.
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