MANY of us celebrated when the enlightened management of The Irish News appointed as columnist to their excellent daily the well-informed and liberal internet satirist Newton Emerson, thus launching the latter's professional journalistic career.
Yet all the papers, no matter how successful, are dependent financially on advertising, a large fraction of which comes from government organisations, which in turn have no income but from taxation.
In short, Newton - like many before him, has grown less liberal and more opinionated with the passing years - owes a large part of his income to the long-suffering taxpayer.
It is incumbent upon any satirist never to lose his sense of irony.
I wonder therefore how he can conclude his article on March 28 with the rhetorical question: must the taxpayer forever fund printing material which can just be put online.
