Posted on 09/27/2009 11:37:44 AM PDT by Graybeard58
President Obama increasingly is frustrated by his inability to spin the news and control the national debate over his initiatives, particularly health-care "reform." He chiefly blames cable TV (read: Fox News), the 24-hour news cycle and bloggers for focusing "on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can't get enough of conflict; it's catnip to the media right now." To him, commentators and bloggers are the most vexing because he will never bring to heel those not associated with the liberal news media or socialist organizations.
To combat the spread of disinformation, defined as inconvenient facts and opinions with which he disagrees, President Obama proposes to buttress the one news medium that by and large is most reliably liberal and easiest to manipulate: newspapers. He has urged Congress to move ahead with another government bailout bill, the Newspaper Revitalization Act, that would encourage floundering newspapers to reorganize as nonprofit educational corporations. The seemingly altruistic aim is to free newspapers from the chains of capitalism while qualifying them for federal grants and tax breaks.
Enactment, of course, would be the death knell of the free press. It's bad enough that politicians and government bureaucrats can manage the news by the threat, implied or otherwise, of denying access to "journalists" who won't play ball, and that some newspapers have been caught shaping their news report to kowtow to advertisers or selling access to their reporters and editors to lobbyists and politicians. But imagine what newspapers would publish if they were beholden not only to ax-grinding endowers, but to coercive government funders. Laws dictating how nonprofits operate would permit governments to sink their claws further into the Fourth Estate. Before long, newspapers would be reduced to hybrids of Pravda and special-interest newsletters.
Granted, these are dark days for newspapers as they struggle to find their niche in the evolving news business. But just as the shield law wending its way through Congress could lead to the government licensing and regulating "journalists," the newspaper-bailout bill would pull the remaining teeth of the public's watchdog.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
Hey, RATs and RINOs, We The People Are Coming in 2010 and 2012; thats a vow.
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/capitol-view-lo-res.jpg
Well, Austin Texas has taken the first step towards the Chavez model by essentially criminalizing blogging that the State does not approve of. So, bringing us "to heel" = jailed for Thought/Hate Crime.
Welcome to ObamaLand (formerly known as the "United States of America").
How lame must 0bama be? He has almost every single media outlet in the country shilling for him and he is still being foiled.
Got a link? I used to live in TX.
I did not know about this!
oh that
I didn’t know about that law
btt
As long as TP remains legal, their circulation will decline.
The media aren't dogging the Bummer; they're catting him.
“(The Democrat party is a criminal enterprise.)”
It’s the truth. I wonder how many understand that truth.
He wants to control the medium that is IN DECLINE..? GREAT! When it becomes even more clear that that element of control is in place, then that will only hasten its death...
People will get a huge shove onto the net and into the blogosphere.
Interesting...And if i were a head of state or CEO i would only allow Press passes to legitimate Journalists working for a free press, not a journalist posing as an educator/writer wearing an NEA button...
But it’s too late to play word games with ‘Journalist’ because the Internet with it’s social networking and blogging sites, and instant news sites have outpaced the newspapers with their once a day news cycle...It’s like trying to save the horse and buggy...We don’t need a horse and buggy bailout..
Dems will force us to subscribe to a liberal newspaper or we'll be fined and jailed - just like what they'll do if we don't buy health insurance...
It's so much fun living under dem rule.
I can't believe I'm reading these words.
At some point the megalomanical dope will overstep his lilliputan abilities so far even the hallucinating left won't be able to deny it.
but how much damage must he do before he gets to that point?
It would better to some how press him to it sooner rather than later.
What would Karl Rove do?
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