County Uses Economic Development Money To Bail Out Newspapers

But don’t worry. I’m sure the paper will be absolutely 100% independent and objective when reporting on economic development issues and/or the politicians that just gave them this bailout.

A 2-year-old weekly newspaper in Carrboro [North Carolina] wants to do two things most news organizations can’t or won’t these days: print more copies and use public money to do it.
The town’s Board of Aldermen made that possible Tuesday night, approving a $50,000 small business loan from a fund aimed at sparking local economic development. Its owners plan to use the money to expand their staff and headquarters, and nearly double their press run, from 6,000 to 10,000.
Carrboro Alderman Dan Coleman said Carrboro is lucky to be home to a newspaper that’s growing as many other papers shrink and cut staff.

Expect to hear more of this sort of thing as time goes on. Remember that on the federal level, the politicians are already talking about not only bailing out the newspapers but also government training programs for journalists.
The danger here is that the government is creating more dependency, this time among the very people who are supposed to be independent of the government by the very definition of their profession. Government loves to create dependency among Americans with programs like welfare and Medicare and Social Security, because people who are dependent on the government are easier to manipulate. When the journalists start getting bailouts this will be true of them as well.
After all, what courageous journalists are going to bite the hand that feeds?