Nationalizing the Newspapers

By Selwyn Duke

Quite a while ago, when all the bailout mania was just getting started, I mentioned on a radio show that the left soon might propose aiding their public relations team, the newspaper industry.  Well, it wasn't but a few weeks later that a story on the subject broke, and I wrote about it here.  And now this movement seems to be picking up steam.  As Ann Shibler at JBS.org tells us :

In the nationalization spirit of the day, this has sparked Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland to introduce legislation to bail out privately owned, for-profit U.S. newspapers. "We are losing our newspaper industry," Cardin was quoted as saying. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."

Cardin is hopeful that these once private enterprises will operate as non-profits, just like public television. His Newspaper Revitalization Act [PDF Download], currently before the Senate Finance Committee, would allow newspaper companies to report on all issues including political issues, but the endorsement of political candidates would be disallowed.

Shibler correctly points out that such a move would make our newspaper industry like Pravda (although, in practice, some might wonder how it could be more biased than it already is). 

I also have to say that I find our current non-profit model completely ridiculous.  If the newspapers are granted non-profit status, they will be forbidden to endorse political candidates, in the same way that churches labor under that prohibition.  But have you ever seen greater pretense?  Who really believes that the NAACP is "non-partisan"?  For that matter, who really thinks the Christian Coalition — whose work I've appreciated (and which now enjoys non-profit status but is also, unfortunately, leaking oil financially) — is non-partisan.  These organizations actively push an agenda that is highly ideological, and, given that political parties are also so, this makes these non-profits highly partisan in a de facto sense. 

In reality, churches or any other entity should be able to endorse whomever they please.  The only criterion for being non-profit is that, call me crazy, you shouldn't be turning a profit.  Of course, the larger issue is that our current tax system should be scrapped completely.  There should be no such thing as income tax — or real-estate taxes for that matter — as these ideas are quintessentially un-American (but who knows what American means anymore?  I mean, isn't that word spelled "Amerikan"?).  Our current tax code just serves as a vehicle through which the government can fleece and control the citizenry.

                             © 2009 Selwyn Duke—All Rights Reserved