Well, of course you are, oh chosen one. After all, when you are blessed with a sycophantic media, you've got to do everything you can to keep them afloat. You just can't let the New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, etc. tank after they've kissed your butt for so long. Why if it wasn't for these good friends in the media turning you into a godlike figure while pretty much casting Sarah Palin as the Whore of Babylon, you probably never would have gotten elected. Time to pay up!
We know the government can help because there is now vast empirical evidence that when a poorly managed and non-competitive business can't keep up in the marketplace, there is nothing like an infusion of government funds (our money) to just turn that right around. Why, no matter how irrelevant your product is in the marketplace, the government can shore you up and support your union workers in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed! Look at what a great job Washington has done with the banks, GM and Chrysler! On top of this, look at how successful and unbiased PBS and NPR are.
Now, the right wing conspiracy nuts will say this is a giveaway, but it is clearly not. We won't really be giving newspapers any money. We'll just be allowing "tax breaks", which isn't at all like giving them money. What this means is that they simply won't need to pay taxes. True, the rest of us will need to make up for that through increased taxes or increased deficits or reduced services, but hey, it's still not like real money! In exchange for this, the newspapers must reorganize as non-profit organizations, kind of like a church. And everybody knows that churches are basically honest, benevolent organizations. So just look upon this as not a bailout but rather as a way to promote religion in America.
Yes, I know that newspaper circulation is way down because their unwavering allegiance to the Progressive cause has lately become so blatant that they might as well print "A Division Of The Democrat Party" under their mastheads. As readers flock to sources that they trust more than these socialist rags, advertising revenues are plummeting because the audience is so much smaller. This means there is less money left to pay the bloated salaries of union reporters, press operators, etc. But none of this is important. What is critically important is that we maintain a pure, unbiased press (at least unbiased towards Democrats.)
Some of us may be concerned about a HUGE conflict of interest if any segment of the media in this country is controlled by the government. I mean, could an Obama bailout of the newspapers, who are protected by the First Amendment, signal the potential for political abuse. Absolutely not! Who among us can possibly believe that Obama would treat this as a way to propagandize the press? No one except those nutty conspiracy theorists on the right. Obama's motives are pure here. He's just worried that if all news reporting is left to irresponsible internet sources, there won't be enough "fact checking" to insure the newsworthiness of any story. It is a valid concern. I mean, just look at how accurate the fact checking was from the major newspapers on the recent march (revolt?) on Washington or in the ACORN scandal. Why, if you just listened to Drudge and Fox News, you'd actually think that there were over one million people at the march and that more than a few rogue employees were involved in the ACORN non-issue! ... well, OK. Maybe these aren't the best examples of serious journalistic integrity, but just look at how accurate the reports from Iraq have been!
Of course, our government would never tell a charitable organization that if you don't stop saying certain things or if you don't say things our way, we're going to revoke your tax exempt status. No, never.
What total BS ....
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