Thread: Save the Newspapers!

U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers | Politics | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.

Hmm, what "educational purposes" might these be?

The state wouldn't want its propaganda outlets to go belly up, would it? People might actually start to, gulp... think for themselves! :scared:

Originally Posted by Defensor

The state wouldn't want its propaganda outlets to go belly up, would it? People might actually start to, gulp... think for themselves! :scared:

That's the hilarious part about this effort to "save" the newspapers.

Even if you keep them afloat, people still have to read them for it to be meaningful.

Newspaper circulation is going down the tubes and is showing no signs of turning around.

So even if they prop the newspapers up, the only people that will be reading are those that like to be manipulated.

Originally Posted by C-101

That's the hilarious part about this effort to "save" the newspapers.

Even if you keep them afloat, people still have to read them for it to be meaningful.

Newspaper circulation is going down the tubes and is showing no signs of turning around.

So even if they prop the newspapers up, the only people that will be reading are those that like to be manipulated.

The idea of a few media magnates being able to totally control the flow of information to the citizenry is a thing of the past. That's why the government and its lobbyists are so adamant about taking control over the internet and shutting down the information revolution it has enabled.

i basically quit reading newspapers about 3 years ago.. except for an oped now and then.. I get most of my information from the net... and Forums like this one... I have three that I frequent and they are all pretty informative... and besides that newspapers are only good for starting a fire in the fireplace.. so you can cuddle with better half and have a glass of wine with

Originally Posted by Defensor

The idea of a few media magnates being able to totally control the flow of information to the citizenry is a thing of the past. That's why the government and its lobbyists are so adamant about taking control over the internet and shutting down the information revolution it has enabled.

The good thing about the internet is that it is international.

One government cannot regulate the internet unless all countries agree to adopt the same regulation.

This is why the communist Chinese hate the internet. They can't control the content on the internet so they block certain "dangerous" websites instead.

The best our government can hope to do is to tack on more .gov sites to the already enormous stack of them.

Or just rely on Google to shut down anti-Obama blogs.

Why would I want to contribute the liberal propoganda machine? They are getting what they deserve... LOL,

Shit Geithner will just take them over.....

Originally Posted by michaelr

Shit Geithner will just take them over.....

With the unprecedented expansion of government we've seen so far I would not be too surprised.

Their argument always centers around the "too big to fail" tag line.

By the "logic" they have put forth in controlling banks and now we've learned ANY financial institutions they could say, "Gee, the NYTimes employs a lot of people and if they were to fail a lot of people would be hit hard. Therefore, the government should "invest" in these newspapers to keep them afloat."

In essence, any corporation could be targeted by the government for nationalization provided that they are "big enough" and thereby their failure would "cataclysmic".

The whole mess just stinks of a government power grab.

Originally Posted by C-101

With the unprecedented expansion of government we've seen so far I would not be too surprised.

Their argument always centers around the "too big to fail" tag line.

By the "logic" they have put forth in controlling banks and now we've learned ANY financial institutions they could say, "Gee, the NYTimes employs a lot of people and if they were to fail a lot of people would be hit hard. Therefore, the government should "invest" in these newspapers to keep them afloat."

In essence, any corporation could be targeted by the government for nationalization provided that they are "big enough" and thereby their failure would "cataclysmic".

Precisely, it is all smoke and mirrors. That is why fedgov engineered all the failures in the financial industry in the first place.