A Free Press Means No Government Involvement

But that's exactly the opposite of what we're getting. The Federal Trade Commission is currently holding a workshop to explore ways the government might help save the journalism industry.

Make no mistake about it. The government already controls the press. It does so through licensing, enforcing "decency" and "fairness" standards, public funding, restricting access, and granting preferential treatment.

The feds have always been frightened of truly independent news reporting. That explains why we're seeing a strong effort to counter the effect the Internet has had on the mainstream media.