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Comment by tcfhgj | Hacker News Reader

Works quite well in germany

It doesn't because it's not the Government funding it out of its own budget but rather the government forcing all citizens into an involuntary contract. This is really the worst possible combination of private and public media.

So let’s hypothetically say that some autocrat decided to take over Germany and decide a certain minority should be - I don’t know extinguished - wouldn’t a free non government run press be useful?

Nahh that would never happen.

I think your main issue in your argument is that you think that only government funded press is allowed to exist, which isn't what anyone was talking about.

Also, what would stop the autocrat from outlawing any non-government news source?? A piece of paper written by people 250 years ago certainly won't.

What’s the use of any press that’s funded by the government? Would you trust them to do accurate reporting on vaccines when the government is run by RFK? Would you trust them to tell the truth about what was going on in Minnesota? Venezuela?

Any government funded press would either be a tool of propaganda or be constantly worried about getting defunded - like what just happened to NPR and PBS.

The government just required the press to get pre approval before they could publish anything - even non classified info.

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2025/09/pentagon...

This idea was so abhorrent that not even Fox News would sign on.

https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-reporting-rules-hegseth-...

Now the part of the press corps that has direct access to talk to Pentagon officials is literally made up of right wing social media influencers.

no it does not.

We can argue about public media but Germany is a really bad example.

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