What about other valuable contributors to our economy?? I say take your place in line behind those who really deserve it!
Posted on 12/03/2008 5:04:31 AM PST by Kaslin
It was supposed to be a joke. As an endless parade of corporate beggars marches to Washington in search of handouts for their beleaguered industries, some of us in the news business snarked that journalists would be next in line. I launched a Newspaper Bailout Countdown Clock on my blog after The New York Times Company's bonds plunged into junk territory in October. A few weeks later, columnist Jon Fine published a tongue-in-cheek memo in BusinessWeek outlining a federal newspaper rescue proposal.
The jibes were meant to be facetious critiques of for-profit enterprises demanding massive taxpayer expenditures under the guise of preserving the "public interest." But now, in a rather unfunny turn, the newspaper bailout push has actually come to pass.
The Republican governor and the Democratic attorney general of Connecticut went on the record last week in support of government intervention for failing local newspapers. God save us from bipartisanship. Their joint statements pushing a salvage program came in response to news that The New Britain Herald, The Bristol Press and 11 weekly papers across the state face closure. About 100 jobs are at stake. This is bad news, no question. But cause for apocalyptic talk and expansive meddling by politicians? Please.
"This is the worst financial turmoil I have ever seen, not only in our state but in our nation," Gov. M. Jodi Rell lamented as she expressed her support for some sort of government/media salvation plan. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal asserted: "The newspaper is an information lifeline. It provides really an essential service." Among the "essential services" Blumenthal thinks taxpayers should prop up: marriage notices and school sports announcements.
These items are easily and effectively disseminated online. Connecticut consumers who are passing up the newspapers that offer these products obviously don't agree with Blumenthal that it's "essential" to get them in dead-tree form. But Rell seems to believe that quaintness is an argument for government funding: "There's something about having that paper and being able to sit there with your cup of coffee or your tea and read through and find out not only the news but the real feel for a community."
Local lemonade stands give you a "real feel for a community," too. Should Johnny and Susie get handouts for keeping it real? Should we resurrect Woolworth with some of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's bottomless bailout billions while we're at it? Why not bring back town criers with public subsidies, as well?
Unperturbed, seven Democratic state legislators stepped up further pressure by sending a letter to Connecticut's Department of Economic and Community Development seeking help for the dying newspapers. With straight faces, they wrote: "As elected officials, ourselves, we want [the] public to have access to independent news about what is going on in government and our communities. We share the sentiments of our nation's leaders who wrote the Bill of Rights that a free press is an essential part of democracy."
How "free" can a "free press" be if it is leveraged with government funding? How free would they be to criticize other corporate enterprises seeking local, state or federal help to keep them afloat in hard times? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? A press beholden to the ruling class -- a press that cannot stand on its own two feet and the strength of its product -- is a press better off dead.
We waited for years to expose the mutual back-scratching between the MSM and government spendthrifts.
Now that it’s been put on display I must admit I’d rather not see it any more.
ping
Cost benefit analysis. It would be cheaper to supply everyone who doesn’t have one already a computer and internet access than it would be to subsidize print media.
Actually, taxpayers already subsidize computer access with the funding of community libraries.
The decline of the print media is tied to a generational change in how people get their news. The younger generation is more computer literate and less dependent upon the print version of newspapers or anything else for that matter to get information. They are also more visually oriented. Reading is on the decline.
And I would be remiss not to mention the impact of the foreign born on English language newspaper circulation. In 1970 one in 21 was foreign born in the US. Today, it is one in eight and by 2050 it will be one in five.
Almost too obvious to state. How 'bout they just change the name of the papers to "Truth" and "The News".
If we bailout a car company, the gov gets to tell them what kind of car to make.
If we bailout a bank, the gov gets to tell them what kind of loans to make.
If we bailout a newspaper, the gov gets to tell them what kind if news to make.........
Many newspapers carry phony circulation numbers through “Newspapers for Learning” programs. They leave off a pile at my school as well as at other private and public schools to pump their circulation numbers, thereby adjusting rates to advertisers.
For this reason I never have to purchase a newspaper, however most of the copies at my school simply go into a recycling bin.
This is what the liberal media do for our environment ~ and now the liberals expect to run the environmental concerns of the country?
All wages will go to the government.
The government will dole out subsistance according to what the government deems necessary.
That is CHANGE.
Guess it doesn't matter that they aren't trusted news sources. Funny, I always thought that you had to market a GOOD product in order to stay in business. For years here on FR I've watched the dinosaur media threads get posted, happy to see such a good example of capitalism at work.
No matter, I guess. The free market is officially dead.
They've already been creating the news that the DNC wants them to present for years.
That’s true, but now they’ll have the power of the federal government behind them.................
If the lying MSM gets one taxpayer dime, we need to start a class action suit for all the public fraud they've perpetuated over the years.
The dishonest media is destroying the country.
“Where’s my bailout?”
“Hey, I’ve incorporated my piggy bank. Now I’m a failing bank, and I want my share of the bailout money.”
But now, in a rather unfunny turn, the newspaper bailout push has actually come to pass.The Republican governor and the Democratic attorney general of Connecticut went on the record last week in support of government intervention for failing local newspapers.
“The newspaper is an information lifeline.”
If it wasn’t for the MSM, Democrats would have to rely on academia, intellectuals, and viral emails and wheatpaste poster scampaigns to get their daily talking points out. Oh wait, they already do.
Why should the gummint have to pay? They get their propaganda out for free (as long as they’re dems).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.