Can democracy come to the rescue of journalism?

Across the United States, local news is collapsing, trust is eroding, and public media is under political attack. Yet democracies cannot survive without reliable information. In News for Free, journalist and press-freedom advocate Joel Simon travels from New Hampshire and Texas to Denmark, South Korea, and beyond, asking whether governments can support journalism without controlling it.

Drawing on vivid reporting, history, and urgent debates over technology and artificial intelligence, Simon shows why public media remains both vulnerable and indispensable—and proposes a new model for independent, publicly supported journalism capable of strengthening civic life in a fractured age.