Reflections

Does Journalism Need To Be Reinvented? Only If You Want To Pay More Taxes!

Posted by on Jun 10, 2010 | 5 Comments

The FCC is looking into several ways to bail out newspapers in the U.S., including additional taxation. According to a recent survey from Rasmussen Reports, 84% of people surveyed rejected a proposed 3% tax on monthly cell phone bills to raise an estimated $3B to help struggling newspapers.  In addition another survey indicated that 74% of those questioned rejected a 5% tax on consumer electronic goods such as the Kindle, iPads, and computers to bail out the newspapers and journalists.

On the Rasmussen site it also states that:

One of the FTC’s central concerns is that the quality of local news reporting is suffering as financially struggling newspapers tighten their belts. Yet while Americans continue to see their local newspapers as more reliable than online news sources, they also have consistently questioned government assistance to keep those papers in business.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Americans are confident that online and other news sources will make up the difference if many newspapers go out business.

Is this just another example of greedy newspaper moguls crying in their beer and hoping to get a sympathetic bailout from Washington? Do we as a nation intend to bail out every industry that hits on hard times? If BP has to file bankruptcy will we bail them out as well?

When is this insanity going to end?

Comments welcome.

Source – Rasmussen Reports

No More Taxes On Cell Phones!

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  • http://www.7dayshootout.com/ Daily Insights

    I can not stand this kind of stuff. Why should we even consider bailing these corps out? This is the way of the world survival of the fittest if you will and if your company can not evolve and change with the times then it is time for your company to end. They don’t need a life line from the government they need to clean up their own mess and find a new way to do business because if they don’t there is always another company waiting in the wings to seize the opportunity.It’s called competition and that is the stuff that makes the economy grown not bailing out failing companies.

  • http://www.kconnolly.net Kevin Connolly

    Newspapers killed themselves by not keeping up with the times. Some of them have picked up on the trends and have decent websites; but they no longer have anything unique to offer with the possible exception of some local news.

    Let them die. They are an obsolete medium. I can get my news from many places, all at once, in a more easily digestible format, much faster.

    That is the order of things. We call it a Lifecycle. A thing is born, the thing rises in popularity, the thing either adapts to changes or dies off. It is for the best.

    It’s not a matter of when something will come along and kill the newspapers. That happened years ago.

  • Dan Cook

    The govt should produce some compelling examples of industry bailouts that have worked. (I don’t think they exist.) The industry will reinvent itself–it’s already happening. The purchase of trueslant by Forbes Media is one validation of the successful transition of news services entirely to the web.

  • http://sassysweetbren.wordpress.com Bren

    The government can’t and shouldn’t bail out everyone. We have known just as the news people, that the wave of the future of news is the internet.

    If the newspaper people want to get into the future, they should have been prepared years ago.

    Everyone enjoys having a newspaper on their doorsteps in the mornings but I see this as soon to become a thing of the past. Too bad really. However, as I stated, my answer is no.

  • http://www.twitter.com/zeph Ron

    That’s a nice way for them to try and twist the truth just to get new taxes. Everyone knows (or should know) the money wouldn’t go to smaller, local newspapers. It’d end up being siphoned to the bigger newspapers spewing borderline propaganda in major cities. If you live in one of these major cities then yes it is local. But they’re playing with words to make it sound as if it’s meant to save newspapers in small towns. It’s not.

    These bigger newspapers are losing subscribers because they keep leaning further left. They’re losing money because they’re less about informing people and more about cheerleading for Obama, Democrats and the left in general. An excellent example would be the New York Times. I say let the yellow journalism fade away.