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. 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).
In early May, Gibbs said that while he hadn’t asked the president specifically about bailout options for newspapers, “I don’t know what, in all honesty, government can do about it.” “I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” he said.
I don’t know about you, but I feel a little tapped out at the moment.
No.
Nope…no bailouts…let them fail…no one will miss them…good riddance.
“Bailout”, when written as one word, is a noun.
What you are trying to say in your headline is “bail out”, which is the verb form of the word.
Don’t think I’d want to bail out journalism that doesn’t know the difference.
#43 Has’t the verb “bail” coupled with “out” become a technical term denoting particular bail outs?
I think so.
The word invokes extreme displeasure, to taxpayers.
You nitwits think we can throw away the press with no repercussions? Why do you think the founding fathers put freedom of the press in the FIRST AMENDMENT? They knew that the presence of a free press was vital in a democratic republic. Hello? Checks and balances? Were you all sleeping through civics class in high school?
And sure, the press is severely damaged — run by billion-dollar companies who only care about the bottom line and not about performing their duties keeping government and big biz honest. But the solution is not to THROW AWAY the free press, the solution is to FIX IT.
Nitwit wingnuts throwing away our most precious freedoms. Not surprising, I suppose — you’re the ones who loooooved Bush’s domestic spying without warrants and torture.
The Establishment Media is in trouble…not freedom of the press…don’t confuse the two…
We can live without the NYT…we have thousands of other news outlets not going out of business…
Like liberal radio, which loons want to force conservative radio to pay for…I don’t want to pay for Democratic Party propaganda…
Leave taxpayers alone.
Let the liberal press die its death…its the way of all things liberal.
Thanks for sharing your unique viewpoint, Alfie.
#47 Flydoo…you’d be a real charmer if it weren’t for your personality…
You never let the facts interfere with your opinion…
But I thought we had to rattle your cage to get it…
So, anyone care to comment on the loss of our free press and the implications for our democratic republic?
After we’ve had the auto bailout, the executives are switching to making green cars per instruction of the government.
They are investigating Humana for sending out a mailer to people who get Medicare Advantage.
They are using the NEA to have artists promote Obama’s agenda.
So Phydeau, the government propping up newspapers is protecting a free press?
#50 Flydoo….Evidently, distinguishing between a free press…and the Establishment Media…is not a “unique viewpoint.”
Rather than unique, few will follow your generalization of the Free Press, and the Establishment Media…
Their advocacy of the Establishment has diminished them in the eyes of the Public…
#50 MikeN, right now the press is owned by mega-billion dollar corporations. Their interest in running a newspaper is strictly profit-oriented. The free press is supposed to keep the government honest. Investigative reporters cost money that comes off their profit margin, so they’re being cut. How is this fulfilling the function of a free press that the founding fathers envisioned?
The free press is supposed to report on corporate malfeasance also. When the press itself is owned by the corporations it’s supposed to be reporting on, how can it do that job?
No one is saying we should have government-run media. But newspapers and TV and radio fulfill a vital function in our society, that our founding fathers acknowledged, and shouldn’t be shut down just because they’ve become an unprofitable part of some mega-billion dollar corporation.
The NEA is the National Endowment for the Arts, it’s not the press. What are you talking about?
# 49 I had to laugh “loss of our free press”
#53 Yes, it isn’t that “free” nowadays, but it’s all we got… and we should try to improve it, not throw it away.
And despite what the headline says, allowing a corporation to become non-profit is not “bailing them out” — it’s not like giving billions to the banks. There are plenty of non-profit corporations out there, and no one is accusing the government of “bailing them out”.
Phydeau,
http://tinyurl.com/neaprop
“I have been asked by people in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago in a conversation that was had. We had the idea that I would help bring together the independent artists community around the country.”
Another story the newspapers are ignoring.
We aren’t losing freedom of press, we are losing the archaic newsPAPER. We will still be getting news, just in digital or audio/video format. Why is news printed upon a piece of paper any more trustworthy than when it’s published by the same people online?
#56 Um, we’re giving billions to banks and you’re worried about artists being paid to create “rah rah America” art?
That doesn’t even have anything to do with the topic of the thread. Maybe you need to breathe into a bag for a few minutes; it helps with the hyperventilation.
Anyone have a comment on the topic?
#57 The newspapers are publishing their content online, for now, but they haven’t figured out any way to make money on it. Newspapers are in dire straits. Once they go, poof, all that online content that you’re reading for free is gone too.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch… if you don’t pay for news gathering, you won’t get it.
#59: How does Google make most of its money? Advertisements. How do newspapers and magazines make money in their print form? Advertisements. Most of their money comes from advertisements anyways, not subscribers.