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Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:25:03 -0400 From: Christian Nelson <xianknelson@mac.com> To: Bill Densmore <mediagiraffe@journ.umass.edu> Subject: Re: YOU'RE INVITED: Sustaining the news and newspapers: A critical convening May 27, Washington, D.C. (fwd)

I wish I could attend, but can't. Let me just suggest, however, that the problem is not "whither journalism?" but "whither investigative journalism?" and the absurdity of the idea that the genie of free news can be put back into the bottle of a pay wall, along with recent congressional responses to the current newspaper crisis, including apparent rejection of the granting of monopoly exemptions, indicates that the solution is going to be turning news organizations into non-profits that get funded by donors. A handful of those donors are going to be civic-minded folks, while the majority are going to be folks who believe that investigations into their pet problems will demonstrate the correctness of their cause. In other words, we are going to see a sort of return to the days when papers were politically partisan, with all that that entails. That should keep people like those at FactCheck.org, and perhaps those at NPR and PBS, quite busy.Thanks for all you're doing, Christian Nelson MGP 2006 participant and Civic/Convergent/Citizen Journalism Prof. at Bay Path College