John Cusack Wants to Talk About Paywalls
The movie star says that by selling their public-records-based reporting, news outlets are compromising one of journalism’s essential civic roles.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Columbia J. Rev., Jan. 7, 2026
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One of the things you’re particularly interested in at the moment is the Freedom of Information Act, and specifically, ensuring that FOIA-based reporting isn’t kept behind paywalls. Why do you think that’s important?
There’s an irony in the fact that FOIA-based reporting often ends up behind a paywall, because the public owns government records. We fund their creation through taxes, and we fund the agencies that produce them. We fund the FOIA office that processes the disclosure request—the entire apparatus is built on the premise that this information belongs to us. So when the journalist files a FOIA request, the story is the product of public investment. At any stage, the documents are ours. The disclosure process is ours. The reporters’ access exists only because the law recognizes our right to know. If that story then goes behind a paywall, that right becomes a privilege.
Now, this is not an argument against paying journalists, or that the realities of the journalism business aren’t fraught. I get that part of it. Newsrooms need to survive. But the news isn’t just a business. It’s enshrined in the First Amendment.
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