Letters to the Editor: How schools and colleges can save the news industry

To the editor: We read the op-ed by Martha Minnow and Newton Minnow on “why government has a constitutional duty to save the news industry” with nodding agreement. They offer many innovative ways for government to support good journalism, but they overlook low-hanging fruit.

Education and journalism should be natural partners to foster democratic engagement through a culture of newspaper reading. Colleges, universities and even high schools can make newspapers available and incorporate them into their courses.

In our own teaching, up-to-date newspaper accounts have been important resources for our students. Colleges and school districts should come to agreements to make newspapers available to students, increasing students’ knowledge and growing the market for the free press.

More than ever, students need access to factual information if we are to save this democracy. The education establishment has a critical role to play in this.

Patricia Gándara and Gary Orfield, Los Angeles

The writers are co-directors of the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

..

To the editor: Respectfully, the government has zero duty to save the newspaper industry. While I love the feel of holding a real paper newspaper in the morning, saving the industry is not the government’s responsibility.

The industry has become too political and has lost sight of its responsibilities to inform, not indoctrinate.

David L. McDaniel, Capistrano Beach

..

To the editor: It’s all well and good for Congress to take all the actions mentioned in the op-ed article, but the biggest problem is getting the public to actually read and understand intelligent news.

Americans have become so addicted to sports, entertainment, gossip, video games, social media and texting that they lack the time for and interest in reading important, intelligent, unbiased news.

Herb Adelman, Del Mar