Baiing out newspapers?

[Brugdor]

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE4BU53T20081231?sp=true

Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press.

More at link


Uh...no. Just...no.

There are so many problems with that idea but I'll just go over the biggest two IMO.

First, government controlled news media? Why don't we just start spelling America with a 'k'? (Tick reference) There are so many problems that could arise from the government owning and controlling the media that it's rediculous. If you think the media sucks now (which is does) just wait until government stooges are censoring stories coming across the wire like those two goons in Good Morning Vietnam.

Second, it's the natural order of things that businesses that produce a product that is no longer useful will either adapt and grow into more useful areas or they will go out of business. Think of how hard it was for stagecoach companies to stay in business after everyone started getting cars. Newspapers have been losing readers for years due to the internet  in the same way. They can't generate ad revenue like they used to because their readership is dispersed due to access to numerous news sources via the net. Most of them aren't going out of business because of poor business models (see Big 3 auto makers) but because there's simply less demand.

This bailout nonsense is getting completely out of hand. After 9/11, conservative talk radio started talking about how the government handouts to family members of the victims would lead to more and more handouts for everything you can think of. They were spot on. It's gone from only big things like 9/11 or Katrina to normal every day stuff like a business failing. Businesses fail every day in this country. Are we going to bail them all out? Give me a compelling reason that we should turn down a guy that owns a manufacturing plant that employs 150 people yet approve money for a newspaper? There isn't one. It's just going to be a pick a choose situation and I think we all know that companies that grease palms in DC are going to get the bailouts, not the little guys.

[Doombot]

Yeah. Bad idea.

Besides... whatever happened to the right to fail?

I'm not sad to see the rabbit ear antenna industry isn't around. We have something better (cable/satellite/downloadable content).

It's the same thing with newspapers. Sure there's something quaint about getting a newspaper for special events (election for example) but I get all my news from the internet, news alerts delivered to my e-mail or via the iPhone.

Why bail out an industry on it's way out? I thought we were mainly a capitalist society... what's with the safety net mentality?

[Brugdor]

I didn't want to start a whole new thread for this so I'll just put it here on the off chance someone will want to read it.

http://patterico.com/2008/12/31/patterico%E2%80%99s-los-angeles-dog-trainer-year-in-review-2008/

This is a blog entry summation of all the shenanigans the LA Times has pulled this year written by a blogger who apparently has made it his life's work to research all this stuff. I say that because just...wow.

My favorite part is about editors and reporters at the paper having ties to a now convicted mobster type person that kept them from protecting or supporting one of their own female reporters who was threatened by him. If you want to skip to that part just search for Anthony Pellicano on that page. I've never even heard of this story so either I've been living under a rock or it didn't get much national attention. The former being a distinct possibility if one considers MMOs to be a rock.