TO THE EDITOR:
Recently, the Daily Tar Heel moved off campus to assert its independence from the university and takes pride in the fact that it does not receive university funding. For this, the well-respected paper deserves praise.
However, in yesterday’s editorial (“Time for Transparency,” Aug. 25) the paper deviated from its assertion that media outlets must remain independent. Implicit in the article is support for a state-funded media entity: UNC-TV. The editorial called for increased ethics regulation for the purpose of promoting transparency instead of advocating the dissolution of the state-funded media outlet. How can the DTH explain such a contradiction?
A consistent stance would be to advocate for the dissolution of UNC-TV as a news outlet. There is clearly a conflict of interest when the media, which serves the critical purpose of keeping government within its boundaries, is funded by the very government which it is supposed to keep in check.
Reporting news critical of government might jeopardize funding for UNC-TV — thus the news is politicized and cannot expect to be unbiased. Furthermore, political pressure may be used to force state-funded political outlets like UNC-TV to push an agenda. That is not some conspiracy theory — that is what happened with the Alcoa Dam piece. Transparency and ethics regulation are not the answer. In the spirit of pushing big ideas and broad reform, let’s think outside the box.
Jason Sutton
Senior
Political Science
