...as the government starts the financial bailout of the the mainstream media. Gateway Pundit reports:
[Washington] Gov. Chris Gregoire has approved a tax break for the state's troubled newspaper industry.The new law gives newspaper printers and publishers a 40 percent cut in the state's main business tax. The discounted rate mirrors breaks given in years past to the Boeing Co. and the timber industry.
Well, I can think of a few things right off the bat that can shatter this funhouse "mirror":
-how many people in Washington State work for the newspaper industry, and what is their annual tax payments compared to that of Boeing and Big Lumber? Why do I have the feeling that the inkworkers are far less numerous, and contribute far less to the state, than the other industries mentioned? Really - why not bail out dry cleaners, who have less suits and shirts to press an the unemployment rate continues to rise? What is so special to politicians about the media? Hmmm....
-Neither Boeing or the timber industry are charged with spreading information (or not spreading information, or selecting which information to spread, or creating false information to spread) to the people of Washington. How can one compare a heavy industry recieving a subsidy - jet engines know not of politics - to a newspaper, who can easily tilt facts and stories to benefit their benefactors?
-How can one not expect news reporting to stay unbiased when your very existence is predicated on a paticular person/party in power? Can you imagine, for instance, a Seattle newspaper coming out with a series of critical articles on abuses by Washington governor Chris Gregoire, when on a whim he can eliminate their welfare and put them out of business? I can see the editor screaming at his young cub reporters right now....
And that's the problem. Bad enough that the people are already losing faith in the mainstream media. If full government subsidies become the norm, and news-gathering organizations are considered nothing more than the propoganda arm of those in power, it will be a deadly blow to the civility of American society. Rumors, false allegations, and competing lies will be the coin of the realm, and discourse and knowledge will suffer.
We are halfway there now; and look at how partisan the national conversation has become. A few more bailouts of the media, and we will lose the ability to talk to each other entirely. And nothing good can come out of that...
1 comment:
Every day I tell myself that it can't get any worse and, sure enough, it does. The country is being destroyed before our very eyes. One can hope that the damage is not irreversible.
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