America’s Right-Wing Propaganda Problem Might Be Terminal

we definitely want the fourth column to remain independent from government funding

https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/01/do-countries-with-better-funded-public-media-also-have-healthier-democracies-of-course-they-do/

“among rich countries, the United States is a biiiiiiiiig outlier [in per capita spending on public broadcasters]”

“Germany spends $142.42 per person on its public media. Norway spends $110.73, Finland $101.29, Denmark $93.16. Leave Scandinavia for Western Europe and you see the U.K. at $81.30, France at $75.89, and Spain at $58.25. Heading a bit east? The Czech Republic’s at $60.08, Estonia $55.70, and Lithuania $32.71.

Only trust the Anglosphere? Try Australia $35.78, New Zealand $26.86, or Canada $26.51. How about Asia? Japan spends $53.15, South Korea $14.93. Africa? Botswana’s at $18.38, Cabo Verde $15.22. 

And then there’s the United States — which spends $3.16, per person, per year, on public broadcasting.”

Fund PBS and NPR.

I think public funding with independent editorial control is the way to go. It's not perfect by any means but it's the best we have.

I’ve wondered the same thing. I never minded ads on news articles as long as they were along the side and out of the way of what I was reading. After they started pushing the ads that spring up in the middle of the text I was reading and click-jacked a few times, I switched over to an ad blocker and never looked back. Good journalism needs to be monetized in some way, but I’m not adding another monthly subscription for a single news source and I’m not reading articles from a source that prioritizes the ads over their content the way they have been. I don’t know how we go back from here.

It’s accepted that good journalism is expensive

No. It isn't.

Even on The Left we are full of people who shit on news outlets endlessly and "help" by pulling stuff out of ad walls or to reproduce everywhere.

And the moment they see something they don't want to? Personal attacks, accusations that journalists are shills, etc. Let alone if a news outlet decides they don't want to risk persecution when they know nobody has their backs.

This battle is more or less lost. But the only hope is to push back against all the "all of this is just clickbait" stupidity and discourage people from pulling those articles out of the ad and pay walls.

I'd also suggest the alt-right playbook videos on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/P55t6eryY3g