Not an arsonist but a tightwad

These failures are not the result of a press conspiracy, however, as left-wing critics in the past have frequently charged. The newspaper proprietor who will spend only a dead minimum on reporting is like a slum landlord who maintains a firetrap. The landlord does not want a fire. He hopes there won't be any, and he will save the cost of fire escapes. He is not an arsonist but a tightwad.

... "Conspiracy" would be less disquieting than the present state of affairs, because the newspapers could not possibly conspire as fast and as often as they now manage to keep the news out of circulation through their miserly ineptitude.

-- Footnote to "Goodbye, MBI" (1948), reprinted in "The Press"