I said earlier this year (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) that there was reason to believe that 2009 might be the year of the newspaper bailout.
Now one of Maryland's two Democratic US senators thinks he has come up with a way to subsidize and save them -- while simultaneously turning them into house organs for his party.
Ben Cardin (picture at right is from his Senate web site) has introduced "The Newspaper Revitalization Act," would accomplish the just-described goals by allowing papers to convert themselves into not-for-profit entities, providing them tax breaks, and .... prohibiting editorials.
Those who know establishment media reporting know that editorial commentary will then become the sole province of left-leaning beat reporters pretending to be strictly fact-based in their supposedly straight news stories and "analyses," while traditional newspaper editorials, which against all odds still seem to lean barely to the right when averaged out nationwide, will disappear.
Here's how Thomas Ferraro of Reuters describes what Cardin has cooked up:
With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.
"This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat," said Senator Benjamin Cardin.
A Cardin spokesman said the bill had yet to attract any co-sponsors, but had sparked plenty of interest within the media, which has seen plunging revenues and many journalist layoffs.
Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.
Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.
Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible.
In the short run, Cardin's bill would give well-to-do Democratic activists, perhaps including many of the "private investors" Tim Geithner is looking at to buy up "toxic assets," a chance to fund the newspaper of their choice and turn it into a pet project for subtly and not so subtly promulgating their worldview. How about the New York MoveOn Times, or the Washington ACORN Post?
Over a longer period, it seems to me that what would develop out of this would be any number of single-city NPRs that would attempt to control the tone of, and access to, political coverage in their respective locales. They would give perfunctory lip service to token print operations, while having large and unfair cost advantages over their taxpaying for-profit competitors.
Readers might have other ideas as to what might come to pass if Cardin gets his way. So have at it, with this priceless exit excerpt, which happens to be the opening sentence of Editor & Publisher's coverage of the story:
Newspapers perform a public service for democracy and should be allowed to operate as tax-exempt non-profits, U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D.-Md., proposed Tuesday.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters
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Comments Policy
Couldn't their liberal heads
March 24, 2009 - 23:06 ET by MANstreammediaCouldn't their liberal heads explode? They are printing something that no one will buy/or read therefore they are wasting trees/energy. That's not very green.
My gosh, who in the heck
March 24, 2009 - 23:14 ET by mostlymoderateMy gosh, who in the heck actually reads a newspaper anymore? Even the oldest people I know get their information from the internet. Newspapers are a waste of trees and a waste of toxic ink. I won't even read the Wall Street Journal or Investor's Daily anymore; why would I?
Why don't these lousy newspapers GIVE the papers away for about 10 cents, generate income from advertisements, remain unbiased in the writing, oh wait...that defeats the whole purpose: liberal propaganda. Democrats would MUCH rather have the taxpayers pay for *their* newspapers.
Sorry mm, I enjoy reading a newspaper.......
March 25, 2009 - 04:49 ET by old croat my leisure. My situation may be somewhat different from others, but I do not have to be tied up in front of a computer to get the news. I scan the computer early in the morning for interesting tidbits, visit this site and others, but when the paper is delivered, its time for Soduku, Horoscope, On This Date in History, Sports, Headlines, Editorials, World News, Local News and Obits - in that order. Not having to go to work plays a big part in my situation, but even when I did, I still found time to read the paper before leaving (with a smoke and a coffee, the paper goes down excellent).
let Sharl Crow yellow the paper, then the cycle is complete.
March 24, 2009 - 23:15 ET by upcountrywaterMSM needs a solid customer, someone who pays the bills, Us the tax payers, Forced on us like like PBS and NPR spew the leftyisms...
Just remember the pressess are to YELLOW TO FAIL...
P.R.I.N.T. Money 30 sec YT
Please America...wake
March 24, 2009 - 23:21 ET by bigtimerPlease America...wake up...this will get slipped in some where... some way also...is anybody paying attention to what all this man and his team are doing behind our backs quietly...let alone what he has been doing with cramming down all down our throats.
The Senate too now...I've been hearing about what Rahm and he and all involved are doing behind the scenes to get the cap and trade, health care, green energy, education etc all in one Reconciliation Bill, so it just takes a simple majority, no amendments or debate allowed, more or less...
This will cause fire the likes I have never seen with the Senate and within his own party included in my opinion.
Going to be interesting as I fume as I am and have been for days now...let alone watching this planned performance tonight.
I get weary of all of this and what I am watching happen daily to this country...one can only hope for the best and the fight must go on.
they can Revitalize themselves
March 24, 2009 - 23:31 ET by general companyAnd it is easy and cheap, just tell the truth. Print stories your cusomers want to read, have a balanced content, and of course fire the hacks. Their you go, Newspaper Revitalization Act
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
Exactly
March 25, 2009 - 06:37 ET by kgNewspapers stopped providing a public service decades ago. The internet has been a godsend to inform people of the events of the day. The newspapers in the U.S. have turned into political (Democrat) propaganda machines. It has been ages since you could get a straight news story where all the facts were there. They have become outdated and should be allowed to die.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
Barneypapers
March 24, 2009 - 23:41 ET by wnaegeleSigh!
How quickly they forget
March 24, 2009 - 23:46 ET by KC MulvilleBrit Hume predicted this very thing when he received the WFB award.
you think thats bad
March 25, 2009 - 00:21 ET by GeronLThe NATION magazine wants the government to spend $60 billion a year to support the newspaper industry!!
I dont understand why folks are upset?
March 25, 2009 - 04:39 ET by well99Didnt the Soviet Union pay for Pravda?Goebels financed Der Angriff for the Nazi's.NPRK is financed by Dear Leader.The other one in North Korea.It isnt like it hasnt been done before.
Sure they won't endorse a candidate...........
March 25, 2009 - 04:54 ET by old croSure they will not editorialize. Sure they will be fair and balanced if the are tax free. Just like all those off color ministers out there that have no agenda are tax free also.
What other choice is there?
March 25, 2009 - 06:10 ET by Lord ErondHussein and his ilk feel they have a liberal mandate and short of open insurrection and rebellion, all we can do is write, write, write our leaders. Heck I just emailed this democratic twit even though I'm not from Maryland and told him in so many words to stick his newspaper revitalization act up his ass. Of course, he's a democrat so he'd probably enjoy that.
"To sin by silence when we should protest, makes cowards of men" -Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Well of course that
March 25, 2009 - 08:22 ET by general companyOf course, he's a democrat so he'd probably enjoy that.
depends on how much pork is in it
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
they need to go....
March 25, 2009 - 06:46 ET by jackie3The main stream media, print and all...needs to go belly up. That's the only way to bring back independent press. No more bail-outs. Let the main stream media go bankrupt, liquidate it and allow small press operators to come in.
Alexander Hamilton: "We are a Republican government. Real liberty is
never found in the despotism or in the extremes of a Democracy."
news and economics
March 25, 2009 - 07:30 ET by AgnosticIt is my opinion that it is not the bias of the newspapers that is hurting them but the lack of an equal or nearly equal contrary voice. With so many sources saying the same thing and with the general population growing increasing lazy (morally, intellectually and physically) you end up with way too many suppliers of the same product. With so many suppliers and the preferences of the consumers towards ease and entertainment you get things like Comedy Political Shows passing for news. The internet has its own dagger in the heart of the old media but it really comes down to the basic economics of too many suppliers without diversity and the preferences of the consumer base.
Newspapers flourished when they warred with each other over opinion pieces and the backing of politicians; recall the papers back during the early administrations of this nation. Slowly, IMHO because of liberal colleges, the press turned from competing ideas into an echo chamber and now the echos are fading from the forms of news that appeal least to the masses.
A person may be won over with logic and reason but the masses must be bought with spectacle and platitudes. - 2008 Elections
Easy there
March 25, 2009 - 07:51 ET by BettendorThose of you wishing for the demise of newspapers should take it easy and back up a step. You have to remember that there are some of us who actually work to be fair who would be (and are) hurt by a newspaper closing down.
That being said, this proposal by Sen. Cardin is a scary one, and one that is ethically questionable at best (again, some of us do have ethics and follow them). If the market causes papers to decline, it's more of a business model problem than anything. In a lot of places, yes, that business model would be impact by the editorial content and thus, if readers are rejecting it, should close down. But this is AS THE MARKET DICTATES.
The fact that newspapers and media remain for the most part independent and free of government control still keeps us free, even if some of us (you know who those outlets are) don't exercise that freedom.
Bad products don't sell
March 25, 2009 - 08:54 ET by GalvanicAs Cardin admits, the newspapers suffer from failing to change their obsolete business model. And in a free market society -- which includes the free market of ideas -- innovation and efficieny are rewarded, and obsolesence dies a natural death. The newspapers are dying for the same reason that we stopped buying buggy whips.
But leave it to the Left to barack-it up.
The Netherlands has (or had) a program that was featured on 60 Minutes years ago. It seemed that creators of bad art couldn't make a living because (a) no one wanted their products, and (b) NO ONE wanted their products.
But who is to say what is good art and bad art? Certainly not consumers of art.
So, the national government stepped in with a program through which the government would buy the art that didn't sell and use it to decorate public buildings.
The board established and authorized to select the bad art for the government was comprised mainly of artists who themselves couldn't sell their bad art.
The outcomes were predictable . . .
1. A bad art industry flourished, as anyone could create virtually anything, declare it "art," and sell it to the government.
2. The bad art on display at public buildings became an eyesore and source of public embarassment.
3. The government was buying bad art faster than it could be dispensed for display, and resorted to leasing warehouse to store the excess art that nobody wanted in the first place. When the show aired, the Netherlands was leasing hundreds of thousands of square meters of warehouse space just to store crap that would never have anyplace to go
Beware . . .
Just what we need
March 25, 2009 - 11:56 ET by misterbee241Just what we need - government owned and subsidized newspapers. And yes,, I believe the politicians when they say the papers will be free to print what they want and be unbiased.
So now, papers can be officially the propaganda arm of the socialist democrat party instead of pretending they are unbiased. Will they still print opinion as news?
Fortunately, for a while yet, there are still places to get unfiltered news.
"I dont need to read a newspaper to know the world's been shaved by a drunken barber."
Walter Brennan, The Colonel, Meet John Doe, 1941