Here are some numbers for you to chew on:
Direct press support in 2012:
Dagsavisen | 41 039 221 kr |
Vårt land | 40 966 080 kr |
Bergensavisen (BA) | 31 048 274 kr |
Klassekampen | 29 052 936 kr |
Nationen | 25 579 635 kr |
Dagen | 15 224 635 kr |
Rogalands avis | 12 074 563 kr |
iTromsø | 9 138 481 kr |
Fiskaren | 6 051 487 kr |
Porsgrunns Dagblad | 3 908 323 kr |
Not exactly sure what determines the amount of money the various newspapers receive, but does it not make you warm and fuzzy that these newspapers can write whatever, and receive a constant stream of money from the state, including your tax money? And why bite the hand that gives them money?
The indirect subsidies (VAT exclusion) given to papers that are printed on papers ran up to 1.7 milliard NOK in 2012. For VG this amounted to 212 million NOK.
In that climate where VG are just working to increase view-counts online and papers sold offline and working to please their supreme owner and ultimate protector (the state), why on earth would you think an average journalist would take the time to actually learn about bitcoin and then bite the hand - his employer, schibsted and the state of Norway - that feeds him? It's not in his interest, and he's not independent, and this is not a 'free press'.
Newspapers should be independent businesses fighting to survive in the market. If they were unable to do so, they would die. Their death would mean they served an artificially purpose from the very start.
Also, in today's world we do not need to use dead threes to deliver news. I think the market would be willing to pay for quality journalism, but that is very scarce these days.
If Tom Staavi started to write accurately, and then by default positively about cryptocurrencies, he would pretty soon get a message from management asking him to stop., and if he didn't he would've been forced to.
Therefore, intelligent humans avoid the mass media as much as possible, and go an explore an interesting subject in depth when they're interested. Just imagine how much errors media makes about stuff you don't know anything about when you clearly can see how much errors they make about things you know a lot about.
So think independently, don't be a sheep.