On The Media this past week floated the idea of bringing back the Work Progress Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project which happened during the Great Depression. During the 1930s’ writers documented what was happening in America during the Great Depression. We’re talking Studs Terkel and John Steinbeck being two of the many writers who participated in the project.
At the same time the Farm Security Administration hired photographers like Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks. Parks is the one of the original LIFE Magazine photographers and he directed the movie Shaft.
The interview on the show featured The New Republic’s Mark Pinsky talking about the possibility of the resurrection of a new version of the Federal program. It’s an interesting idea but with so many in the public dismayed by the media these days I don’t think taxpayers would be happy funding it if they think of TV and tabloid journalism covering Britney Spears or Amy Winehouse.