A free press means no subsidies
By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / July 25, 2010
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When the Bay State Banner, Boston’s only black-owned newspaper, was on the verge of shutting down last July, Mayor Thomas Menino kept it alive with a loan of $200,000 in public funds. Did the Banner’s gratitude to the mayor affect its autonomy? In April the paper had thundered, “No self-respecting African American can vote for Menino if he chooses to run again’’ — yet in September it made no endorsement in the mayoral primary. By January, it was flattering Menino for his pursuit of “innovative ideas’’ and hailing him as Boston’s “most productive’’ mayor ever. The Banner’s publisher insisted that the loan had not affected his editorial stance, but not everyone was convinced. When it comes to Menino, blogged Colman Herman for MassINC, “the Bay State Banner . . . has turned from watchdog to lapdog.’’
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He who has the gold makes the rules!
The First Amendment was for “watchdogs”; not lapdogs.
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Reinke Faces Life 