Sunday, September 20, 2009

MSM decline: Not a bug, but a feature

Stole that line from Dafydd ab Hugh in the Green Room, who relays this 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).
My senators from the People's Republic of Maryland, who are aiming to bail out the disastrously mismanaged (and transparently biased) Baltimore Sun. You'll notice that nine times out of 10, when my buddy Jeff Quinton at Baltimore's Inside Charm City blog posts a scoop, it's first reported by WBAL, which runs circles around the Sun's anemic online operation. As always, the Welfare State ignores success and rewards failure. Carolyn Tackett comments:
It seems the way to get taxpayer money these days is to make nice with the Administration. This is certainly true of this country's newspaper industry which has either ignored, downplayed or buried stories critical to the administration. It is highly doubtful that the industry will be more likely to view the administration with a critical eye if the are being propped up by the government.
More at Memeorandum, Toledo Blade, JammieWearingFool and RedState.

Wonder what Obama would say if Republicans sponsored a bailout for Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com?

3 comments:

  1. So now the press will actually get paid to support the president. It makes sense. I guess they should be paid for that work. :) God knows every employee of the government will be paid.

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  2. Of course, by making them 501c(3), the Gov can then begin determining/restricting content based on their tax-exempt status. Handy, that.

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  3. Remember that the Baltimore Sun is owned by the Chicago Tribune. Not that Obama owes them any favors or they know where a quorum of bodies are buried or anything. That would be wrong.

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