Should the Government Bail Out Newspapers?
Does a Democracy Have an Obligation to Help Preserve a Free Press?
It's a question that Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro has pondered, and he has come to to the conclusion that not only should the government help ailing newspapers, but that it has an obligation to do so. To that end, he and his fellow state legislators have petitioned the state government to help prevent two local newspapers from going belly up.
The two papers in question are The Bristol Press and the The Herald, which are published in the small towns of Bristol and New Britain, respectively. The two papers are in such bad financial shape that they may fold within days.
Many would regard the bailout of a newspaper by the government to be an egregious conflict of interest. How can a newspaper be true to the spirit of a free press if the government controls the newspaper's purse strings?
Part of the historical mission of newspapers in the United States has been to ensure that elected officials be held accountable to their constituencies. How can you expect a newspaper that it not unequivocally free of government influence to fulfill this mission? After all, you cannot, as journalism professor Paul Janensch puts it, "expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it."
Nicastro and his colleagues are quick to point out, however, that they are not proposing to have the state give the papers cash. Rather, they want to leave that job to prospective publishers. And to meet that goal, they are offering potential publishers and investors generous tax breaks and other financial incentives.
It is a very precarious time for the newspaper business. Consider, for example, what happened to the once-mighty media conglomerate Tribune Co. Competition from the Internet coupled with a dramatic drop-off in advertising revenue forced the Tribune Co. to seek bankruptcy protection. Prior to its filing, Tribune Co - which owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Time and many other newspapers - had been drowning in a sea of debt (to the tune of a staggering $13 million).
You may be surprised to learn that, should the Connecticut legislature end up helping The Bristol Press and The Herald, it would not be the first time the government has come to the rescue of newspapers. It happened back in 1970, in fact. In response to a declining readership among various papers throughout the nation, Congress passed the Newspaper Preservation Act. What this piece of legislation did was to form joint operating agreements among competing newspapers occupying the same market area. Thus, multiple papers were permitted to thrive by combining business operations while, at the same time, preserving separate and competitive news operations.
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. That we are in extraordinary times is evidenced by the fact that we are in the midst of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. That extraordinary measures to remedy the situation have been taken is evidenced by the fact that the government has pumped $700 into the financial markets. Huge companies like AIG and Citibank have been bailed out. Now it looks as though General Motors and Chrysler will be helped as well.
Considering this, is it really so outlandish to ask the state of Connecticut to entice prospective publishers into investing in a couple of small town newspapers?
Sources:
Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate, Robert MacMillan, Reuters, December 31, 2008
Tribune media company seeks bankruptcy protection, Vinnee Tong and Anick Jesdanun, The Associated Press, December 8, 2008
Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, Wikipedia
Published by Hartley Engel
I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada but raised in Los Angeles, California. I have a BA and MsEd degree from USC. View profile
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9 Comments
Post a CommentGood article on a difficult topic.
And we are not a democracy. We are a Constitutional Republic, so you might try pulling it out once in a while, since what the government is allowed to do and what it isn't is included in it.
The government isn't bailing out anyone. You are. As the Federal Reserve prints more and more worthless money to cover these corporate welfare bailouts, inflation results. You pay that in higher costs, so it is not the government bailing them out, it is you. As our money becomes more worthless, more and more foreign investment occurs, and then foreigners have more control of our government than the actual citizens. If a newspaper cannot price itself to cover it's costs with a reasonable profit, or cannot sell advertising space which is actually what most papers now major source of income, than maybe they need to hire better marketing managers, or go under. There are a great many papers now which are free to the public. Maybe they are losing their market because the news they carry is biased or with a political bent that is outside that which the majority of the population now ascribes. We shouldn't be bailing any corporate entity out, period. Because it is a violation of our C
As someone who freelances for both newspapers, it is the parent company that is not doing well. The papers were sustaining themselves but makor debt has caused the company to want to sell them. Regarding the Government plans to bail out the papers, it's called tax breaks. Here in Connecticut we do the same thing for Hollywood movie companies. Yet, never a word about that here.
Preserving a free press with government money is an oxymoron. The freedom of the press is moving away from traditional methods of journalism to the radio and internet. If we really want a free press, then we should let the free market weed out newspapers as we turn to other sources of information for our news. Isn't freedom the ability to choose what we want anyways?
Good article on an important subject. I agree with Heather. Free press should be preserved. People have a right to know what's going on locally, and she made very good points in her comment. On the other hand, I also agree with Rae. Bailouts are getting out of hand. When I was financially in trouble, no one bailed me out - even though I was swindled by a crook who called himself a contractor. That's a completely different story that I can't possibly explain in a short paragraph. Enough is enough. It's time to stop bailing out big businesses. They need to find ways to cut back like everyone else.
Government bailing out "the media" is NOT preserving the free press. Obama will literally own the media - with our money. Orwellian nightmare...
I think the government bailouts are getting out of hand. The government does not have the money to keep doing this.
I do think the government has an obligation to preserve the free press. As the fourth estate, the newspaper's responsibility is to keep things in government fair, balanced, and in-check. Without the newspaper, many small governments (like city councils, school boards, etc.) would be free to do as they please without fear of it 'leaking' to the newspaper. I cover both city council and school board meetings at my newspaper, and I shudder to think what they would do if a representative of the press wasn't there to report on it. Great article, Hartley. I'll have to share this with my coworkers.