[pp.int.general] Some parting thoughts

[Brian McNeil]

On Fri, 2009-10-23 at 17:59 +0200, Reinier Bakels wrote:

<snip>

> A decent employer should not shift the risk to the journalist and pay him 
> "per view".
> 
> And let's remember where our debate started. I arguted that in the *present* 
> system journalists are sometimes so poorly paid initially that they depend 
> on extra money from extra views. Then it would not be fair to say: one one 
> is enough.
> 
> I would favour a system that gives writers a decent amount the first time, 
> so that they don't depend on dreadful copyright.

Copyright is one of the few protections any independent journalist
actually has. Your over-simplification scares the hell out of me, and
would - I think - be of great benefit to people like Rupert Murdoch. It
would be bad for public discourse if the opportunities for investigative
journalism, and making a living from such, were lessened or limited.

You likely assert the public has a 'right to know' what is going on;
well it takes time, it costs money, and copyright is the alternative to
a press which relies - as painters used to - on patronage.

And I would also vehemently oppose setting minimum education-level
criteria. Walter Cronkite never finished his degree, should he have been
excluded from the world of journalism?

-- 
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org>
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Brian_McNeil
Content of this message in no way represents the opinions or official
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