Say Anything Blog

This is pure liberal genius! Let the federal government financially rescue newspapers in the name of serving the public interests and for countering conservative internet lies and then the newspapers become a State Regulated Media subject to Federal Government controls.

President Obama indicated he would support federal aid to stop the death of newspapers – but critics warn a bill in Congress could mean strict regulation of political content and IRS scrutiny of newspapers that step out of line. 

“Journalistic integrity, you know, fact-based reporting, serious investigative reporting, how to retain those ethics in all these different new media and how to make sure that it’s paid for, is really a challenge,” Obama told the reporters. “But it’s something that I think is absolutely critical to the health of our democracy.”

In the midst of the newspaper decline, more Americans are looking to the Internet for their information. Obama said the trend worries him.

“I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” he said.

He told reporters, “What I hope is that people start understanding if you’re getting your newspaper over the Internet, that’s not free and there’s got to be a way to find a business model that supports that.”

Obama said he would be “happy to look at” bills before Congress that would give struggling newspapers tax breaks if they restructure as non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations similar to public broadcasting.

”Unless something is done, and done fast, it’s likely that many metropolitan areas may soon have no local daily newspapers – and that would damage our democracy,” Rep. Maloney said in a statement. “Providing this option to structure their business would be a way for a community or local foundations to preserve their local paper.”

Maloney said studies have shown that in areas where daily newspapers have gone out of business there has been a rise in corruption in government and plummeting civil engagement in politics.

“Any newspaper that would surrender its First Amendment right to collect, disseminate and comment on the news would, in reality, cease to be a newspaper at all.”

Some argue newspapers would be required to refrain from supporting candidates or expressing political opinions that could cost them their non-profit status. Tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations are subject to limits or prohibitions on political activities. According to the Internal Revenue Service website:

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.
The IRS states that it “actively monitors compliance by section 501(c)(3) organizations with the prohibition on political campaign intervention, and addresses prohibited activity that occurs.”

The Daily Times warned that nonprofit status could mean IRS scrutiny of any newspaper that steps out of line.

With this bill Lord Obama could effectively control all the news print in the country. They are already going after restoration of the Fairness Doctrine to stop successful conservative programming on radio and they are looking at even controlling commerical advertisement content to make sure it considers alternative social views.

Brilliant! All in the name of the people, making sure newspapers stay active in each community is to make them non-profit and subject to government control. From all the liberals can we get a cheer?