Serious newspapers: now is the moment to unlock Coronavirus material, or incur eternal shame
In my last article, time to live up to the boasting, I pointed out how bewildering it is to see that top newspapers around the world, the supposed “papers of reference”, continue both to:
- Extoll their grandiose proclamations of supposed devotion to public service.
- Charge for access to the epidemic that is scaring the world.
In a meeting I recently attended, someone was saying that “the media has hyped the crisis”. About the mainstream media, this reproach is incorrect and unfair: articles have generally been measured and informative, explaining the situation and calling on experts.
But such solid content sits behind paywalls! Free sources, particularly on social networks, are where you find the hype, the crazy theories and the lies.
Rightly or wrongly, many people around the world are panicking. They need a serious source of information and they are not all able to pay for it, especially if it comes from many sources to which one must independently subscribe.
Newspaper owners, this is your moment of truth, or of eternal shame. Free Covid-19 content now and without restrictions until this crisis ends.
We are fed up with your self-professions of sanctity and want you to fulfill your elementary social duty. You should have started to do this weeks ago already.
It’s not even bad for business — it will attract new, grateful, supportive subscribers who will stay with you for a long time.
The simple, obvious, honest thing to do.
I, for one, pledge never in the future to give one cent, peso or kopeck in the future to any publication that continues its current selfish and abhorrent policy of charging for life-and-death information that the world craves and needs.
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