Should tax dollars be used to finance a government sponsored, owned and controlled media? We all know that this is the media that covered up for the demented Joe Biden. This is the media that lied about Trump and conservatives. This is the media that promotes the cancel culture, radicalism and hate. I am not opposed to this media—they have the right to free speech. But I should not be forced to finance the media that is physically and emotionally me.
“Yesterday, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed slashing a $30 million state program to fund California newsrooms by two-thirds, leaving $10 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The News Transformation Fund initiated through a 2024 agreement with Google, was designed to support struggling local newsrooms with taxpayer funds. At the same time, the cutback highlights a $12 billion state deficit; this program is an egregious waste of taxpayer money, forcing taxpayers to subsidize a biased media that has lost the public’s trust—and for good reason.
The fund was established after lawmakers passed a bill that would have required tech giants, such as Google, to pay for news content. Instead, California and Google agreed to a five-year, $250 million offer, with the state contributing $70 million and Google providing $55 million for journalism and $68 million for an AI project. The state half provided grants to local newsrooms to maintain jobs and community coverage. However, that is not the role of government—a bailout of an industry failing due to its shortcomings, not a lack of government funds.
Money is control. Tax dollars are being used to indoctrinate the public. A free press should be free of government involvement and control.
Newsom’s Cut Doesn’t Fix Taxpayer-Funded Media Mess
California’s News Transformation Fund, born in 2024, faces cuts but still forces taxpayers to fund biased media.
Jon Fleischman, Flashreport, subtract, 5/16/25 https://theflashreport.substack.com/p/newsoms-cut-doesnt-fix-taxpayer-funded?fbclid=IwY2xjawKUZoVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFVOVJocG80d1g5dkt4NEZXAR6tnKkUKGbo8Dw_2tHbgRkbAbeHUBFf-PPuy91moLyENi-aDPHWfW_AhU_3WA_aem_7Qp0R4v0_PH-NmfSqiVApg
Something alarming is happening in California, an affront so grave that one of our nation’s most prominent Founders warned against it—I’ve reprinted his warning at the end of this column.
Yesterday, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed slashing a $30 million state program to fund California newsrooms by two-thirds, leaving $10 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The News Transformation Fund initiated through a 2024 agreement with Google, was designed to support struggling local newsrooms with taxpayer funds. At the same time, the cutback highlights a $12 billion state deficit; this program is an egregious waste of taxpayer money, forcing taxpayers to subsidize a biased media that has lost the public’s trust—and for good reason.
The fund was established after lawmakers passed a bill that would have required tech giants, such as Google, to pay for news content. Instead, California and Google agreed to a five-year, $250 million offer, with the state contributing $70 million and Google providing $55 million for journalism and $68 million for an AI project. The state half provided grants to local newsrooms to maintain jobs and community coverage. However, that is not the role of government—a bailout of an industry failing due to its shortcomings, not a lack of government funds.
Today’s newsrooms are far from objective. News is now apparently subjective, steeped in a left-of-center bias that permeates the industry. Stories are not simply slanted; the language advances an agenda—racial quotas are affirmative action, illegal aliens are undocumented immigrants, and homeless people are housing challenged. This bias not only ennobles progressive liberals in the State Capitol but taints local coverage, warping the perception of city councils, school boards, and county governments. Taxpayers are subsidizing a message that often contradicts the worldview of many of them, forcing them to fund speech with which they vehemently disagree.
Worse, the program creates an inevitable conflict of interest. Independent media is designed to hold the government accountable by providing impartial reporting on policy and politics. But when newsrooms are in thrall to state funding, they accept cash from the institutions they’re covering—whether that’s Newsom’s administration or local governments. How can they report impartially when their survival depends on the institutions that they are supposed to hold accountable? This isn’t a lifeline—it’s a leash, further eroding public trust.
The decline of local newsrooms is not something the government must repair. Perhaps they’re contracting because people are growing tired of the bias. Circulation and ad revenue are declining because readers find other sources that better reflect their views. The market is reacting against an industry that has lost its way, not due to a lack of funds. Yet the left’s solution is to subsidize floundering outlets with our tax dollars to ensure a platform for their message despite a $68 billion deficit.
To make the point, I reviewed the minimal media coverage of this program at the time it was proposed and passed. While there was reporting on what the program did and a considerable amount of coverage of the media’s travails, the press made no real effort to seek out critics who would provide readers with a balanced view of whether this was a good idea.
Newsom’s cut doesn’t go far enough—the program must be ended. It is a travesty of the First Amendment, an issue even the Founders foresaw. Thomas Jefferson, author of our Declaration of Independence, warned in 1787, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.” Freedom of the press means the media is given no strings attached, thereby preventing the government from buying influence. When the government funds newsrooms, it circumvents the purpose of a free press, making journalists beholden to the powers they ought to hold accountable, and moves us closer to government-controlled media. Taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing this betrayal of constitutional ideals.
