Now the newspapers want a bailout.
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.
Of course, I say let them die. And die hard. But if the party in power owes anyone anything, they owe the newspaper business. So the print MSM will probably get what it wants.
Why bother with some diatribe about creative destruction? This is just more ugly, corrupt, corporatism. And it shows no signs of going away any time soon. But a question lingers with me... Is this the NPR/BBC-ization of print? Is this a toe-hold for a government takeover of the print media?
Hopefully, creative destruction will continue to erode this power base before the government owns it and offers it to everyone as a "public good" similar to Pravda circa 1980.
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