[egonschiele]

Sure, I can be more explicit.

1. News is very important, especially today. None of us would have known what happened to George Floyd if a bystander hadn't been there to videotape it. That's what reporters do all day every day all over the world for a million other topics.

2. News is dying. Papers are barely breaking even, and with covid-19, plenty of papers have folded altogether.

3. News is a good example of tragedy of the commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons). We all want it but no one wants to pay for it.

4. The HN crowd has a pretty high median income. I bet they can shell out the $11/month for a nytimes (or whatever) subscription. The Economist has a $1/week offer on right now. Washington Post has a $39/year offer I believe.

5. Despite all of this, the majority of comments here are bitching about the news and not wanting to pay for it. Why?

[drewcoo]

1. I can't remember the last time I saw video of police brutality from a reporter. Maybe never. I think that's a great example of reporters not reporting!

2. News isn't dying so much as monopolies have taken over a not-very-well-regulated industry. That kills off competition to create better product.

3. We all pay for news. They sell our eyeballs to sponsors/advertisers. They even run "news" that is actually ads to get us to buy things or vote some way. We pay for it just like we pay Google for all their "free" services.

4. Maybe we do. Maybe we don't. Either way we pay. See #3. Also either way, we complain. Just like you did.

5. I think the complaints are largely because the news coverage sucks. See #1. That's also a pretty good reason to not want to pay more for it than we already are.

[egonschiele]

> 1. I can't remember the last time I saw video of police brutality from a reporter. Maybe never. I think that's a great example of reporters not reporting!

Here's TWO to start you off! https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1266908874105372672 https://twitter.com/JasonLemon/status/1266529475757510656

> 2. News isn't dying so much as monopolies have taken over a not-very-well-regulated industry. That kills off competition to create better product.

Sorry, you will have to explain this more. Didn't Jeff Bezos buy the Post because they were bleeding money?

3. We all pay for news. They sell our eyeballs to sponsors/advertisers. They even run "news" that is actually ads to get us to buy things or vote some way. We pay for it just like we pay Google for all their "free" services.

Again, what do you mean by this? It seems like we have a difference of opinion where I think newspapers are struggling to survive and you do not.

4. Maybe we do. Maybe we don't. Either way we pay. See #3. Also either way, we complain. Just like you did.

See above.

5. I think the complaints are largely because the news coverage sucks. See #1. That's also a pretty good reason to not want to pay more for it than we already are.

Can you define "news coverage sucks"? What would you like to see?

[Myrmornis]

Thanks. I wrote my thoughts elsewhere down in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23373088. I'd be interested to hear your response, even if it is highly critical :)