Over a period of time, I been hearing this phrase that there are "businesses that are too big to fail." Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey stated that of the automobile industry with regards to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford when he wrote me in response to an online letter that I sent him. Now it seems like that is the case with regard to every industry, particularly the newspapers.
The newspaper industry has been suffering in circulation for quite sometime, so much so that some like the Chicago Sun-Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and others, had declared bankruptcy.They blame the internet for this sad state of affairs as well as other technology. I do not believe that that is the case at all. I believe that their political biases is the reason and the fact that some of these papers are intolerant of views other than their own in the newsrooms and out. I digress, however.
Some publishers and some journalists are requesting that this industry be given taxpayer support, in other words, a bailout. This is not only foolish. It is dangerous. Once newspapers get taxpayer monies to run their enterprises, my fear is that they will be reminded who gave them the money and the "they" (meaning politicians) will dictate what will be printed and what will not be. This would hurt the independence of the press so much that it will turn American journalism into something relating to the old communist newspaper in the former Soviet Union: Pravda.
Journalists and publishers regard themselves as being smarter than the average man or woman on the street. If they accept bailout (tax) monies, they will prove to the world that they are dumb.