FTC paper advises increase in pubcasting funds as part of "reinvention of journalism"

A draft copy of a Federal Trade Commission paper on bolstering journalism includes recommendations to spend more money on CPB, and establish a commercial broadcast spectrum auction tax going toward pubmedia. The paper, "Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism" (PDF), is not an official document, rather a draft for discussion at the third and final FTC workshop on news coverage on June 15. It advises boosting funding for CPB, noting that its 2009 federal budget allotment was $409 million, while per capita spending on pubcasting in Finland and Denmark is 75 times that figure. It offers up an idea for a spectrum auction tax on commercial stations, with proceeds going to a pubmedia fund. Or how about allowing taxpayers to direct part of their taxes, maybe up to $200, to a specific media institution? The L.A. Times' political blog Top of the Ticket weighs in here.