But I am also aware that the news media is now among the least trusted institutions in society — not quite as reviled as Congress, but close — and government subsidies will only add to the skepticism with which many Americans regard the media. The case for most government subsidies is that the industry they promote generates some important public benefit — a benefit that would be jeopardized if matters were left up to the marketplace. I have never found that a persuasive claim and over the years have opposed targeting tax credits to many politically wired special pleaders, including biotech firms, video game makers, arts organizations, convention centers, higher education, movie and theater producers, Fortune 500 corporations, and public broadcasting. When government singles out an industry for lucrative special treatment, I have contended, it frequently worsens the problem it set out to solve or squanders money to no good effect. It would smack of hypocrisy for me to abandon that standard when it comes to the industry I happen to work in. Subsidies nearly always amount to confiscating money from the many in order to redistribute it to the few. Those who advocate funneling funds to local newspapers via tax breaks for publishers, advertisers, and subscribers are really saying that if people won't support local journalism voluntarily, the government should make them do so involuntarily by manipulating the tax code. If you ask me, every family ought to subscribe to one or two newspapers and read them faithfully. Others might feel just as strongly about the importance of music lessons, sending kids to summer camp, filling a house with books, or mastering a foreign language. They're all worthy activities. But that's no justification for propping them up with tax breaks. Yes, the American system of democratic self-government is strengthened by honest and diligent journalism. But government subsidies, almost by definition, are antithetical to the spirit of an independent press and the First Amendment. A newspaper that takes money from the government is apt to pull its punches when it covers that government — especially if it grows addicted to tax breaks that will have to be renewed every few years. The sums involved aren't trivial. The executive director of the Lenfest Institute, which owns The Philadelphia Inquirer, told The Washington Post that a midsized regional news outlet employing 50 journalists could expect to clear roughly $1 million a year in government subsidies under the proposed legislation.