“What in the world is happening to the press?” asks Thomas Jefferson…

Has the press gotten too cozy with government?
How does the press get access when government has the power?
How will using tomorrow’s technology help to validate those privileges the press has and help to restore their creditability?
By controlling the airwaves does government control TV news?

One of the media experts I talked to for my mid-term project sees the future similar to what Dave Winer wrote about in his blog in April, 2007—viewers checking blocks to view only the stories they want to hear and putting in keywords to block stories they don’t? Is that what news is becoming? Cafeteria viewing? Just going through the line and taking what you want? Does that make for a well-informed citizen? Is that what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they gave special privileges to the press?

Steve Boriss talks about what he thinks the Founding Fathers had in mind in his article, “TV News in the Post-Russert Era.” And in that article he raises a good point: “Prior to broadcasting, America got all its news from newspapers, which everyone understood from the First Amendment could not be controlled or manipulated by government. “ He goes on to point out that government has a certain control on TV news because the own the airwaves and the FCC grants licenses. Is that something that needs to change? Does tomorrow’s technology require such governmental control and how would changing that change the future of TV news?

Even I’ll admit I’m a bit all over the board on where I want to take my final paper but this is a start. I do believe that in many ways the government has taken over TV news in far more reaching ways than it ever could have with newspapers. And, that that coziness may be the result of the control government has over the press. Is that a real concern? I want to explore that and its future implications. I welcome feedback.