The Ownership Problem
There is a question that every reader should ask about the news they consume, and it is not the question they are usually encouraged to ask. The usual question is: is this true? The prior question – the one that determines the conditions under which truth can be produced – is: who owns this?
Ownership determines editorial environment. Editorial environment determines what stories are pursued, how they are framed, and which ones are killed before publication. The relationship between ownership and content is not always direct – the best owners maintain editorial independence, and many journalists resist pressure regardless of its source. But the relationship is structural, and structural forces operate whether or not individual actors resist them.