once freed from competition large newspapers in every American city had a monopoly that subsidized large news gathering staffs. The CEI loathed this because some of that subsidy was aimed at business and the Republicans, when in office. Thus, for it the subsidy is political. For the rest of us, it is apparent that newspapers used to provide a lots more of all kinds of information than now offered, even when one includes the Internet or new media or whatever. Fox News isn’t “news” at all and the rest are shells of there former selves.

There are fundamental economic principles that apply to the collection and sale of information (start with Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian’s Information Rules) that present a pretty good case that the new will not be better than the old. This will not bother the CEI, for it is the enemy of the flow of information. It does bother anyone who needs timely, accurate information. This doesn’t mean that a subsidy is the answer (where in the discipline in that?). But change doesn’t always mean better any more that what is generally the CEI’s position which is that change is always for the worse.