• Slate, Friday, February 13, 2009 9:30 AM

Now that newspapers have stopped generating profits, some folks want to transform them into tax-deductible organizations that chase after donations. With tongue partly in cheek, Slate suggests the press could secure its future by declaring itself a religion. The tax advantages and other benefits "would be substantial."

Historians note that the nation's first reporters were men of the cloth, so there is a precedent. A modern-day church paper needn't rely on massive infusions of foundation money. It could instruct readers to tithe. As congregants, it would be their sacred duty.

New York University's Jay Rosen points out American journalism is already a sort of religion, "a belief system shared across editorial cultures in mainstream newsrooms." What qualifies as news reflects an idealized notion of democracy, he says. Public corruption brings forth righteous wrath from the press's pulpit. Journalists seek to purify the country's institutions of self-government. Sound farfetched? The Scripps Newspapers' motto admonishes, "Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way."

Read the whole story at Slate »