As a lifelong consumer of American media, I am always disappointed when a favorite program, network, or outlet goes off the air or out of business. I was outraged when Northern Exposure was canceled, aggrieved when the Speed channel was shut down, and left mighty lonely in the wee hours of the morning when CBS News’s Up to the Minute was rebranded and denuded of its once-urgent tone. Unsurprisingly, given my chosen vocation, my chagrin extends to print media. I was certainly dispirited when George, the political magazine founded by John F. Kennedy Jr., ceased publication, when the New Yorker stopped being good, and when Film Comment was converted from a glossy bimonthly magazine into a glum digital-only enterprise.  Yet in none of these cases did I imagine that the federal government owed the canceled...