Posted on 01/01/2009 7:36:57 AM PST by RangerM
Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press.
Nicastro represents Connecticut's 79th assembly district, which includes Bristol, a city of about 61,000 people outside Hartford, the state capital. Its paper, The Bristol Press, may fold within days, along with The Herald in nearby New Britain.
That is because publisher Journal Register, in danger of being crushed under hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, says it cannot afford to keep them open anymore.
Nicastro and fellow legislators want the papers to survive, and petitioned the state government to do something about it. "The media is a vitally important part of America," he said, particularly local papers that cover news ignored by big papers and television and radio stations.
To some experts, that sounds like a bailout, a word that resurfaced this year after the U.S. government agreed to give hundreds of billions of dollars to the automobile and financial sectors.
Relying on government help raises ethical questions for the press, whose traditional role has been to operate free from government influence as it tries to hold politicians accountable to the people who elected them. Even some publishers desperate for help are wary of this route.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
(BTW, I did a search and came up empty. Apologies if duplicate post)
Makes perfect sense to me. The media has provided billions of dollars of free advertising for liberal Democratic causes. Why shouldn’t the taxpayer be expected to compensate them for providing that service?
Great, bail out the enemy.
A press paid for and owned by the government? Why not? The DNC owns the press anyway.
Public radio; public TV. Why not public newspaper ?
Let’s see.....
Unionized auto workers support Democrats....auto industry gets money.
Liberal media supports Democrats...liberal media gets money.
Of course, it is Republicans that are in the pocket of special interests.
They don’t print anything worth reading so why try to save them?
The good citizens of CT should pay Mr Frank Nicastro a visit with roofing tar and some ‘Martha Stewart’ down pillows.
Newspapers are pretty much obsolete now, but no matter, the government does seem to 'run' the news media. With girly men like Crissy Mathews, he of the Obama thrill running up his leg, making public statements like "It's my job to make sure the Obama Administration works", and all the other liberal gummint lackies in the media, I'd say the government owns the media, for all intents and purposes. Just wait till they decide to place controls on the internet, including taxes and fees for emails, forcing 'fairness doctrine' restrictions on sites like FR, and blacking it out when they feel it's 'necessary', or shutting down 'anti-government' sites. I've read that the U.S. Navy has blacked out certain conservative web sites at times, limiting sailors' information. The potential for government control over everything has grown in leaps and bounds under this present Administration; look for it to get even worse under Sheik Hussein Obama.
We have all heard the “freedom = separation” argument with respect to religion. Imagine the outcry if a politician suggested that the Southern Baptist, Catholic, or Mormon churches deserved a bailout.
The people have already given all the aid the press will ever need. Its called the 1st amendment.
Oh no, I am not for giving money to Newsphobes. For the definition of a Newsphobe, see the following link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2157200/posts
I’ve heard the the New York Times and several of the other “dying dailies” newspapers are quietly lobbying for Federal bailout money, too! Let’em DIE. Technologically OBSOLETE....buggy-whips in a Space Shuttle era.
I wouldn’t buy a newspaper owned by a government. The only exception I would make is the Voice of America, but they’re forbidden by law to broadcast to Americans.
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