Democrat Wants Bailout For Big Media

Well, not bailouts specifically, but rather a change in law to allow newspapers to claim tax exempt status.

Mar 24th, 2009 | WASHINGTON — Struggling newspapers should be allowed to operate as nonprofits similar to public broadcasting stations, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., proposed Tuesday.
Cardin introduced a bill that would allow newspapers to choose tax-exempt status. They would no longer be able to make political endorsements, but could report on all issues including political campaigns.
Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt, and contributions to support coverage could be tax deductible.
Cardin said in a statement that the bill is aimed at preserving local newspapers, not large newspaper conglomerates.
“We are losing our newspaper industry,” said Cardin. “The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy.”

For a political party that just put a man in the White House who campaigned on “change,” the Democrats sure seem to hate actual change. We can’t allow any change in the financial markets, so we prop up mismanaged companies so they won’t fail. We can’t allow any change in the auto industry, so we prop up automakers that should probably go the way of the Dodo.
We can’t allow the media to change and adapt to new ways of communicating, so we must essentially subsidize failing newspapers with a special tax status.
What’s scary is that, once on the hook to the government for this special tax status, any newspaper that has it would be compromised. The newspapers in question would have to toe the government line in order to keep their special tax status. If you don’t think this is true, look at all the political and religious organizations that routinely end up in court or at the receiving end of a bureaucratic inquiry if they get too political. Newspapers would be the same way.
Anyone who thinks that a politician in the cross hairs of a crusading reporter, or a cantankerous editorial board (not that many of either of those even exist any more), wouldn’t look at using the paper’s tax exempt status as leverage is fooling themselves. We cannot trust the government to wield this kind of power over the newspapers. Nor can we let the government use the collapse of the newspaper industry to make that kind of power grab.