The Coming Journalism Bailout

by Mark Hemingway - January 15th, 2009 - National Review (Online)

There has been much hair-pulling over the impending death of newspapers and other traditional forms of media. A downbeat article in The Atlantic by Michael Hirschorn, postulating that the New York Times could go out of business as early as this May, garnered more than a few headlines. More significant, Hirschorn’s piece bounced all over the web, where people read, free of charge, his article from the print edition of The Atlantic (newsstand price: $5.99) about why nobody is buying the New York Times ($1.50) because they can read it for free online.

Fortunately, the Huffington Post, frequently cited as a harbinger of future journalism, has figured out how to save the New York Times. The plan, as outlined by Monroe Price, involves a journalism bailout bill and “rethinking the First Amendment as a positive call for non-market support of a meaningful journalism.” That last bit is Price proposing new taxes to subsidize newspapers, in perpetuity.

Though it starts out serious, and the issue of access to news is serious, this article really gets funny when it starts to tweak the noses of the pompous press leaders about the number of mistakes they are making which lose them public support. I don't know about you but I find it ridiculous the MSM actually thinks a permanent tax to fund newspapers is a reasonable response just because so many people are cancelling their subscriptions to the New York Times.

However that really is their solution to the fact that too few people care about their opinions any more. Pass a law where government forces the people to pay a tax to keep them in business. They swear they are really concerned that people do not have availability of enough difference in opinion. At the same time they are supportive of the idea of killing talk radio since the conservatives who dominate talk radio are giving people too much of a difference in opinion.

It is all about that preferred balance of the MSM being the ONLY source of news and opinion you get, just like it used to be when they were a major power in the world.