Free Republic

Connecticut is considering a bailout for local papers. But government assistance always comes with a catch. In the case of government aid of newspapers, it will destroy the ability of those papers to function as watchdogs. As journalism professor Paul Janensch told Reuters, “You can’t expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it.” That’s why the news out of Connecticut is very disturbing. Two small-town papers have been in danger of being shut down because of decreasing revenue and poor management decisions. Journal Register Corp. recently had to sell the two papers, The Bristol Press and The (New...

<p>The nation's top selling conservative author has been banned from appear on NBC, insiders tell the DRUDGE REPORT, banned for life! MORE...</p>

With each passing day, it seems that the number of industries in the United States not asking for a chunk of the bailout loaf dwindles. If somehow belly-button lint were a commodity, you can wager your last nickel that representatives of the American navel lobby would be banging at bailout’s door for a touch.With so many entities begging for their own wedge of government rescue, does it surprise anyone that the newspaper industry is the latest to come a-mooching? That papers are struggling all across the country isn't news to anyone - nor should it be. The Old Grey Lady...

File this one under the "I should've seen this coming" category; Connecticut State Representative Frank Nicastro (D-Bristol/Forestville) is petitioning the Connecticut state government to bailout his local newspapers, the Bristol Press and the New Britain Herald. This is the first such effort and it is strictly a local effort by Representative Nicastro and some of his fellow state legislators, but I predict that it won't be the last. With all of the large Liberal newspapers now struggling to survive due to dire reductions in revenue and readership, watch for a push from Democrats in Congress to follow suit.

Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press. Nicastro represents Connecticut's 79th assembly district, which includes Bristol, a city of about 61,000 people outside Hartford, the state capital. Its paper, The Bristol Press, may fold within days, along with The Herald in nearby New Britain. That is because publisher Journal Register, in danger of being crushed under hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, says it cannot afford to keep them open anymore. Nicastro and fellow legislators...

mere month ago this idea was a joke. The joke could be on us. Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press. Nicastro represents Connecticut's 79th assembly district, which includes Bristol, a city of about 61,000 people outside Hartford, the state capital. Its paper, The Bristol Press, may fold within days, along with The Herald in nearby New Britain. That is because publisher Journal Register,...

The mainstream media has actually accelerated its slobbering over its Messiah, “The One,” Barack Obama. I thought it couldn’t get worse (I always think that and I’m always surprised when it always gets worse), but take a look at Newsweek, the weekly newsmagazine for Jan. 5, 2009. As you know, Newsweek is beginning to look like Oprah’s magazine. She runs a picture of Oprah on every cover. It seems Newsweek is running a picture of Mr. Obama on every cover. Can it get worse than that? On the Jan. 5 issue titled “The Global Elite” the cover has a picture...

The MSM newspapers are going into the crapper and it is all the fault of idiot bloggers (you know, those guys who sit around in their pajamas writing all day). The problem is that printing a hard copy of a publication packed with solid, interesting reporting isn't a guarantee of economic success in the age of instant news. Blogger Glenn Reynolds of "Instapundit" fame seems to be pleased at this. In his book, "An Army of Davids," Mr. Reynolds heralds an era in which "[m]illions of Americans who were in awe of the punditocracy now realize that anyone can do...

Conventional wisdom holds that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald ordered the FBI to arrest Rod Blagojevich before sunrise Tuesday in order to stop a crime from being committed. That would have been the sale of the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. But the opposite is true: Members of Fitzgerald’s team are livid the scheme didn’t advance, at least for a little longer, according to some people close to Fitzgerald’s office. Why? Because had the plot unfolded, they might have had an opportunity most feds can only dream of: A chance to catch the sale of a Senate seat on...

The media defense of disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and corruption in politics continued Sunday morning as new "Meet the Press" host David Gregory, along with his guests, actually defended Blago's actions as "pay to play" business as usual that's just "part of the system" and "how the world works." Such seems an astounding about face from the press's disgust and incessant focus on the so-called "Republican culture of corruption" that surrounded the reporting of former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay's travails in 2006, as well as the attention given to Jack Abramoff the same year in order to assist...

Promise, or threat? John Harwood declares "the New York Times isn't going anywhere." The Times correspondent, who also toils for CNBC, made his unconditional avowal on today's Morning Joe in response to Joe Scarborough's imagining of a future in which major news organizations, including the Times, might disappear. Scarborough was concerned that the public would be deprived of the media's investigative function. JOE SCARBOROUGH: The problem is, though, that these people are all being fired. So what are we going to do without a New York Times or a Washington Post or an NBC News? The investigators that hold government...

The MSM is also going broke, with 15,000 layoffs and buyouts in 2008 in newspapers alone. Some propose a federal bailout for struggling media, a notion met with some fierce opposition by those who say it would compromise credibility and possibly First Amendment rights.

Tribune Co. chief executive Sam Zell calls situation "a perfect storm." (By Damian Dovarganes -- Associated Press) The move will allow Tribune to stay in business while it seeks better terms from its creditors. The company stressed that all of its businesses, which include eight major daily newspapers and 23 television stations, will continue their day-to-day operations while Tribune restructures its debt. According to Tribune's bankruptcy filing in a Delaware court yesterday, the company has $12.9 billion in debt and $7.6 billion in assets. Tribune's largest creditor is J.P. Morgan Chase, which is owed $8.6 billion. Merrill Lynch is second,...

Mark Pinsky, writing for the New Republic, has an idea of what to do with all the journalists currently being laid off by the dying newspapers around the country: put them on the public payroll by hiring them for a resurrected Federal Writers Project. This was the New Deal project which provided funding for works which were primarily of a leftwing nature. And any current version of this government program is likely to have the same political ideology as its predecessor. Pinksy explains his dream of subsidizing unemployed journalists (emphasis mine): Barack Obama sounds like he wants to reach back...

Back in October, I joked that it wouldn’t be long before the junk-bond New York Times was lining up for a government bailout. Last month, I followed up with the launch of the Newspaper Bailout Countdown Clock in a post about Tribune Media’s financial woes. Well, it has come to pass: Democrats have proposed a newspaper bailout in Connecticut: Seven legislators from the area served by The Bristol Press and The Herald in New Britain today wrote to the state Department of Economic and Community Development to ask for its help in preventing the closure of the newspapers. We’ll have...

Has there ever been a less fun time to be a media mogul? This was supposed to be a banner year for the U.S. media industry, with the happy confluence of a presidential election campaign and the Olympics. Instead, 2008 has been pretty much a writeoff. Some parts of the industry - particularly local U.S. media - have seen their sales fall off a cliff and their long-term viability as business models called into question as a consequence of the shakeout in the financial services companies and car makers, two of the largest advertising categories. "It looks like 2008 will...

I'm starting to feel a little guilty about the media's treatment of President-elect Barack Obama -- and I may not be the only one. Chalk it up to a phenomenon I'd like to call "Obama-remorse." You know how you feel buyer's remorse after you've spent a lot of dough on some big-ticket item, only to realize that you might have made a mistake? Well, it's going to happen to the president-elect as well. Perhaps this sort of recognition prompted Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz to do an incisive piece called "A Giddy Sense of Boosterism" on Nov. 17. As...

Governor: John? It's the Governor here. Say, you guys there at the Bristol Press are doing a great job. Top notch. But there is that one reporter of yours making a big stink over our proposal to increase the state income tax. He really doesn't get what we're trying to do to help our state move forward. And you know, that bill to renew your paper's subsidy is coming up next week. I'd hate to see it get bogged down in the fuss over this. Know what I mean? Editor: Um, yes, I know, sir. The conversation is imaginary but...