From The Hill:
The president said he is "happy to look at" bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.
"I haven't seen detailed proposals yet, but I'll be happy to look at them," Obama told the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade in an interview.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced S. 673, the so-called "Newspaper Revitalization Act," that would give outlets tax deals if they were to restructure as 501(c)(3) corporations. That bill has so far attracted one cosponsor, Cardin's Maryland colleague Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D).
Aside from the fact that a newspaper bailout would make newspapers beholden to government, what I find particularly galling about such a bailout, is that the free market has already spoken against newspapers. People do not value newspapers anymore. The current woes of the newspaper industry is not due to the current economic down turn, rather it is the Internet and the newspapers own biases that has played a key role in their demise.
The newspapers are unable to combat the Internet’s one-two punch of speed and free content. The only saving grace newspapers could have would be to provide unique content. Unfortunately it is the newspapers' own biases that are destroying its one hope. Since so many of the newspaper’s editorials seem to share the same rehashed opinions, more people turn to the blogosphere (both left and right) for fresher opinions.
So the question becomes, why should taxpayers be forced into further debt to pay for something the vast majority of them don’t want or find value in?
Obama had some pretty naïve opinions on the matter too. From the Toledo Blade:
"Journalistic integrity, you know, fact-based reporting, serious investigative reporting, how to retain those ethics in all these different new media and how to make sure that it's paid for, is really a challenge," Mr. Obama said. "But it's something that I think is absolutely critical to the health of our democracy."
Talk about a real knee slapper. Just last week the fringe media was hyperventilating over the whole Joe Wilson nonsense, while two aspiring journalist on the Internet were exposing the scope of corruption from the criminal enterprise known as ACORN. Yet, Obama thinks the fringe media is worth a bailout? The fringe media was wasting their time on political theater, while the aspiring Internet journalists were exposing corruption that could save Americans up to $8.5 billion dollars. To make matters worse, exposing ACORN only cost about three grand. The New York Times spends 100 times that amount in a day and the Times was wasting its week trying to paint Joe Wilson as a racist.
Obama went on to say:
"What I hope is that people start understanding if you're getting your newspaper over the Internet, that's not free and there's got to be a way to find a business model that supports that."
OK fine, let the newspapers find a new business model, but let them do it on their own dime. The nation is deeply in debt and there is no good reason for us to saddle our children with more debt just to pay for something most of us no longer want.
NO BAILOUTS FOR NEWSPAPERS, THEY’RE NOT WORTH IT!
Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Hill
Via: The Toledo Blade
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