Nanny State Extends to Newspapers
Conservatives have rightfully complained about the Democrats’ intended march toward nanny statism. Now it’s getting ridiculous. Sen. Benjamin Cardin has proposed extending nanny state protections to newspapers:
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.
Because newspaper profits have been falling in recent years, “no substantial loss of federal revenue” was expected under the legislation, Cardin’s office said in a statement.
When will the government’s appetite for nanny statism be sated? Will it ever be sated? This is ridiculous.
“We are losing our newspaper industry,” Cardin said. “The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy.
Sen. Cardin isn’t wrong that the newspaper industry is dying. It isn’t because people crave information less. It’s been my experience that it’s the opposite. People crave more information now. Newspapers are dying because they aren’t providing the information that people want.
Changing them from for profit businesses to non-profits won’t fix this. Only changing the product will fix the newspaper industry’s problems. Based on what I’ve seen, this legislation won’t correct that.
Technorati Tags: Newspapers, Ben Cardin, Nanny Statism, Bailouts, Business Model
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
March 25th, 2009 at 8:01 am
the biggest part of the problem is they are not reporting the NEWS, everything has a slant, whether it is liberal, progressive or what not. the newspapers are trying to be what radio is, regional or national not local, so why read it.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Heck, I’m old enough I’d love to read the paper in the morning, but I’m not going to support the local church bulletin for the Church of Obama’s Grace where I live. I’ll just stick to the “news” I get on Yahoo! and bits and pieces from many blogs (right and left) to fill in.
And on a similar note, even if a NYT Sunday edition was 1% of the cost of one of its shares, it would still be overpriced. If the donks succeed in bailing out newspapers (which, in effect, nationalizes them just like in Venezuela) you can bet the farm that Schulzberger will be at the front of the line. He’s already there getting his marching orders daily from His Hollowness and his toadies.
March 25th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Bet tyey wouldn’t bail them out if they were all like conservative talk radio.
Course, if they were, they probabvly wouldn’t all be going in hock.
March 25th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
That’s one of the things that frustrates the left to no end: conservative talk radio doesn’t need bailed out. They have (generally speaking) an abundant audience and hence, they have advertising at a good rate that supports their further use of the radio waves because the station owners are making money (how quaintly evil!). That’s why leftist radio does not succeed (except in anecdotal cases), and why the “Fairness Doctrine”, no matter what guise or name the donkeys or president put on it, must be defeated and sent into oblivion.
If the “Fairness Doctrine” in any form does become law, look for radio stations to start dropping like flies, too.