“Say what you want about a conspiracy theory, but at least it’s affordable,” comedian Roy Wood Jr quipped at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night. It is the night when politicians in Washington and the press that seeks to hold them to account gather in controversial cosiness. “People can’t afford rent, people can’t afford food … they damn sure can’t afford to pay for the truth,” said Wood, as part of his routine. How the US will fix this and restore some kind of democratic accountability is a question that preoccupies centrists here. The stability of well-funded journalism is central to that equation.
Contemplating the economics of journalism, what it means to have a free press and the issues of political control and access was on the menu in Washington, but it also had resonance across the Atlantic.
