Liberty Thought.com

Back on January 1, 2009 I had posted about a possible newspaper bailout.  Now another unscrupulous politician, Benjamin Cardin (D) is proposing The Newspaper Revitalization Act.

If this ever moves forward, there is going to be a lot of nonsense from politicians about the newspaper industry and tradition, and so on.

The fact is that they have been failing because they:

• don’t report objectively
• ignore the needs and wants of their readers
• insult the intelligence of their readers
• are transparent in what they cover & do not cover
• have not changed despite the changes in technology that make information more accessible.

Old money, hand-me-down elites that run these papers are having a school girl tantrum because people can’t be forced to buy their buggy whips. Plus, people just don’t trust the newspapers anymore. People are getting information from outside of the mainstream media. The mainstream media has been less than reliable and has not shown a great deal of integrity at times.

Of course, our federal government has enough politicians that ignore their constituents to sponsor a bill like this. It is a bill that would take more money from your paycheck to keep these unpopular and ineffective newspapers running.

Then again, some would argue politicians need the mainstream newspapers to run in order to maintain the constant stream of selective information and state influenced headlines flowing into the heads of Americans.

With the popularity of talk radio and alternative sources of information, the old two party government is concerned people might actually hear something that is not their hand-crafted message.  First there is an attempt to censor and control AM talk radio with the Fairness Doctrine or some form of it. Now this.

The environmentalists should be having a fit.  Think of all the trees that are going to be sacrificed to produce a product that nobody wants. What is the carbon footprint to subsidize these failing organizations?

Do you think if the government bails these newspapers out that the newspapers themselves won’t be influenced to report in a certain way?  Do you think the newspapers will be anymore objective once the government bails them out?  Or do you think they would have a higher probability to distribute government talking points?

As with any organization, let the free market work.  America should be strongly opposed to government bailouts of news organizations.