9.21.2009

Obama wants to bail out newspapers now

Where do the bailouts end? Do you like the logic here? Masses of regular people discussing the news online via blogs is less democratic than the old system, in which the power to express and distribute opinions/news to large audiences was consolidated in the hands of a few newspaper and publishing companies?
Obama yesterday expressed concern at the sorry state of the news industry and said that he will look at a news paper bailout, because otherwise, blogs will take over the world, and that would be a threat to democracy The Hill Reports.

"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 said he would be happy to look a bills that could give newspapers tax-breaks if they were to restructure as 50 (c) (3) educational corporations. One of the bills is that of Senator Ben Cardin, who has introduced the "Newspaper Revitalization Act."

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