Journalism Bailout?
The trouble with bailouts is, then they own you. Do you want the government to control the media? It has been suggested that Americorps be assigned the job of the ‘news’, as employed by the government. The government overly influences the news as is it.
In this article by Dan Gainor, “Journalism Doesn’t Need a Bailout” it is revealed:
“…the Federal Trade Commission just released what it called “Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism,” a 47-page terrifying bureaucratic plan to insinuate government into the very information that forms the basis for democracy. The draft document is just in time for the FTC’s third workshop on the future of journalism, set for June 15. Coming on the heels of the government’s new $350 billion national broadband plan, this shows an extensive attempt by the Obama administration to seize control of the press.
No one doubts journalism needs “reinvention.” Every industry does on a regular basis. But what is the FTC, and for that matter Congress and the FCC, doing messing with journalism? Well, they’re butting in where they don’t belong.
This is the simplicity of what they are trying to mess with, our Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
And you’ll never guess who is behind it.
“The advocates include groups like the George Soros-funded Free Press, co-founded by Robert McChesney, a strident lefty. McChesney, who once edited what his own website calls an “independent socialist magazine,” now wants to socialize American news media.
He and a coauthor recently came out with a book called “The Death and Life of American Journalism.”
You don’t have to read its recommendations – just look at the FTC report. It’s rife with them. Every page seems filled with their “reasoning” and illogic implying that postal subsidies from early America amount to a justification for full support of left-wing media by our government. This year, the authors appeared on PBS calling for $30 billion annually to fund the “public good” of journalism.”
Further, the Washington Times reported that “…government policy would encourage a tax on websites like the Drudge Report, a must-read source for the news links of the day, so that the agency can redistribute the funds collected to various newspapers. Such a tax would hit other news aggregators, such as Digg, Fark and Reddit, which not only gather links, but provide a forum for a lively and entertaining discussion of the issues raised by the stories. Fostering a robust public-policy debate, not saving a particular business model, should be the goal of journalism in the first place.”
So, successful conservative media would be taxed to shore up failing news outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post! The nerve of these people.
If the thought of an out and out takeover of the media doesn’t scare the daylights out of you then I’d say there is no hope for freedom of speech. Get off your duffs people.. this must not be allowed to happen.
Under the guise of helping the media, the government is examining ways to ‘fix’ media and make it diverse… so that it meets our needs… yeah right!
View the snake oil salesman’s pitch here…