Say No to Newspaper Bailouts! Exercising the Power of the Purse
By Ani on April 24, 2009 at 8:30 PM in Advertising, Bamboozling, General Motors & Chrysler, New York Times, Newsweek
What is the Constitutionality of a Newspaper Bailout? That was the question recently posed by Jeff Bercovici of Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com. This issue has come to the fore because various members of Congress are currently considering such an action.
Without even commenting as to any possible First Amendment breach by virtue of news organizations being beholden to a government for the ability to keep its doors open, my concern is this…Many of us stopped purchasing various newspapers and news magazines in order to punish those organizations for biased reporting and a lack of journalistic ethics. I am exercising the power of the purse – and my decision is not arbitrary, nor is it negotiable.
How I spend my consumer dollars is up to me. Not the government. They do not get to tell me when it is time to buy a new dining table or a sofa. They do not get to tell me when it is time to go to the movies. Nor should they get to tell me when to buy a newspaper. If I decide that the New York Times is no longer the paper of record, but rather a biased rag that was cheerleading and running interference for one candidate while actively working to bury another, then I am entitled to the decision not to support that newspaper with my hard earned dollars.
If Congress makes a decision to bail out this organization with my taxpayer dollars, then they are, in essence, not only telling me how to spend my money, they are spending it for me, against my will.
And where is the accountability? If these media organizations cannot be counted on now to be honest watchdogs, digging for the truth and presenting it fairly, what do you think will happen when they are beholden to a government bailout to keep their doors open?
American Girl in Italy’s excellent article, newspapers are dying because journalism is a joke, agreed with Dan Gainor’s testimony before a Congressional subcommittee that while technology is one reason print media is faltering, the bigger reason is that true journalism is a dying art. Likewise, newspapers are not the only medium to suffer. MSNBC and CNN’s ratings are tanking as well. Why? Because many disgusted consumers have stopped watching certain news programs altogether. If they wanted to watch cheerleaders rather than journalists, they could turn on a football game.
Some concerned citizens have actually gone so far as to contact their cable companies and block these stations from view altogether; deservedly so. We don’t need infotainment and baseless opinion 24/7. We need the whole truth – no matter where it leads.
We need the facts, not propaganda, press releases or Pravda.
I am not getting good value for my dollar with media outlets such as Time or Newsweek, therefore, I no longer choose to give them my hard earned money.
There is a reason why certain businesses die. Pardon this seeming unrelated example, but as something of a frozen yoghurt freak, I decided to check out both the new yoghurt joints that recently opened in my neighborhood. One looks pretty festive from the outside, but when you walk in, the interior is dank, not particularly clean, and the employees’ attitude is don’t bug me, get your stuff and get out. And while I tried to enjoy my cup of grasshopper non-fat, I was treated to smell and taste the cigarette smoke of said employee while he was on a break at the table next to me. As to the other shop – it’s all lit up like a Christmas tree – and the employees have an attitude to match! That place is a gold mine with non stop business day and night. Why? Good value for the dollar and the consumer is treated with respect. Gee. I wonder why that business is doing well.
The news media is not treating the consumer with respect. They are acting like we are a bunch of mindless sheep that can be led around by the nose and distracted by meaningless celebrity pabulum and White House puppy searches.
By the way, how is this Administration’s decision to bail out GM any different? Perhaps the company faltered because it does not make a good product. Perhaps it faltered because it does not have a good business model and is not well run. If something fails, perhaps it is because a message is being sent by consumers – no good value for the dollar. Yet we are being forced to use our hard earned money to support what we obviously do not consider to be a worthwhile or competitive product.
Objecting to this reckless bailout behavior is not a partisan concern, no matter how the folks over at MSNBC et al would like to paint it as such. This is a practical concern. In a recent interview with Fareed Zakaria, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill pointed to the folly of the government pretending it is a magic entity that can get away doing what no smart investor would do: namely, throwing good money after bad.
If our government is able to arbitrarily take our taxpayer dollars and say yes to an organization we say no to, they are taking away our power of the purse. Boycotts have no meaning. Free will is over.
Let news organizations rediscover journalistic ethics. The evolution of technology may dictate we move forward and get our news in a different manner. If that is the case, all the bailouts in the world won’t force people to go out and buy a newspaper. Regardless of the medium, those who are honest enough to offer a good value for the dollar will find a way to stay in business.
Congress should not take our money to bail out whomever they please for reasons of their own.
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Wonderful article, Ani. The taxpayer bailouts of big financial entities has already gotten way out of hand. And now the taxpayers are going to “bail out” the government’s propaganda minions? If we “vote” NO MORE PROPAGANDA by refusing to buy the guilty papers, how dare our elected representatives presume to override our votes USING OUR MONEY to do so? Beyond outrageous!
It is insane to let government finance the media, but how do we stop them? They seem to have a lock on everything, and they are intent on taking over and/or paying-off their supporters with outrageous amounts of money we don’t have..
How do we stop them? Scream loud and long — tie up the phone lines at the WH switchboard. That seemed to have the desired effect when the Administration was floating changing veteran’s insurance benefits — then they suddenly abandoned the idea after there was a great hue and cry.
Couldn’t hurt.
One of Gainor’s strongest statements, for me at least, was [paraphrased]: news is “not” a delivery system, it’s the work [the end product] that people produce.
The newspapers scoffed at the power of the Internet. Book publishers are doing the same right now. And then, when their businesses begin to fail, they scream foul. Whatever happened to the idea that businesses need to be nimble, adaptable over the long haul? Or that quality is just as important as price? Another poster said earlier today that “news has become a press release.”
I think there’s a great deal of truth in that statement. And that’s why we aren’t buying. Until reporters return to the job of reporting, investigating, always questioning power, rather than cheerleading or tabloid sensationalism, their venues will fail.
Deservedly so. I don’t want to pick up a national newspaper and feel like I’m reading People Magazine or a political spin machine.
If they cannot adapt, they die. And at this point in time, I say: good riddance.
When I was a kid and read about Pravda and the nonsense they were printing, I wondered how the Soviet population ever bought into that. How could they? I wondered. But now, the idea that the American government is suggesting bailing out similar propaganda rags is absolutely beyond the pale.
We are sinking fast! And was it the editor of the NYT who had the audacity to suggest the Times going bankrupt was equivalent to the tragedy of Darfur?
What has become of us???
Thanks for the additional essay, Ani.
And now, irony of ironies, Pravda online is a wild tabloid style publication, a journalistic wild-west where you meet the unpredictable for better-or-worse, whereas the New York Times pro-O bias makes it a yawningly predictable Obama propaganda tool. Not that I would trust Pravda now as a reliable news source, but it’s usually fun and lively. The New York Times, on the other hand, has proven to be an unfun, pretentious, ponderous, and untrustworthy mouthpiece of the establishment. Like Pravda used to be!
I don’t know what to make of this. Honestly, I am beginning to doubt the “notion” that we are free at all. Honestly, I don’t know anymore.
Didn’t want to seem to be defending Pravda as a news source, Doc–I’m not. In their online form, they are an extreme tabloid, and you are apt to read anything there from Weekly World News flying saucer stuff to National Enquirer style journalism. And, of course, there is still a strong pro-Russian bias. But it’s sure not the same as the old Soviet Union print Pravda.
No, I know. That was a good point about Pravda. But what does it say when Pravda is more an open and free publication than our newspapers. What does it say when the government needs our newspapers more than we do? I don’t see any good answer to that. Feel free to kick me if I am not making sense.
Yes Doc, that is exactly the point I was trying to make . . .
Sorry, just can’t resist including a few article titles from today’s Pravda online:
And, for the political news:
The wild west indeed!
The fact that you make sense is your problem, Doc!
Liberty has been laying in the coffin quite awhile. A media bailout would be just one more nail on the lid.
I have to disagree with this statement.
I feel the admin is trying to push GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy.
There were no qualms on handing over cash to the banks which made bad choices.
No one was screaming about their products until gasoline hit 4 dollars a gallon. As a matter of fact folks were lining up to buy SUV’s and Trucks. The biggest sellers. You can blame the American people for bypassing the cars that got many miles to the gallon. They just provided the product en mass of what folks wanted.
If and when GM ever folds I know quit a few little manufacturing plants here in my county, that is already at 11 percent unemployment, 70 percent of their work is a GM contract.
Say what you will but GM and the other car makers in the US were cutting back last year closing dealerships.
I guess it is Okay if the military gets there vehicles made in China.
let em rot! rant off
I certainly do not want to force American car manufacturers into bankruptcy, but they have to adapt with the times and find a better way to run their organization to make it cost effective. I am not happy with any of the bailouts.
My point is not to single out the auto industry, but that I do not trust the Administration’s motives because we keep finding all sorts of scary links — who set up bonuses, who campaigned for whom, etc.
You added this little bit so it was your intention to single them out.
Fine. I’m not going to be argumentative with you about it. I was citing an example — one of several that exist. This was primarily about the newspapers. You sound like you’re being a bit accusatory and I don’t really get that.
Maybe you should research a little bit before you make blanket statements.
Maybe understanding what the little guy has to lose would make you more understanding why it is important the big guys don’t go down.
Just sayin.
I appreciate your point completely. I suppose I failed to make my point as clearly as I could have. My problem is more with the administration’s methods. I don’t want to see any American put out of work. I just am not sure the way this Administration is going about this bailout is the correct way — as you pointed out above, it seems as though the are forcing GM into bankruptcy.
I’d love to get your opinion here — what do you think would be a better way for them to have handled this? Would a reorganization have worked? Also, what did you think about the Administration forcing the CEO to step down?
Yes Ani, this is really the crux of the matter. If The New York Times, for example, already behaves like O’s fawning lapdog, what can we expect once they are financially beholden to the administration for their very survival?
How about this baloney?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama100_days_style
How dare they take our money to pay for this crap? WTF? I got rid of all of them when I saw they were pimping the Fraud. No way do I pay to bail their amoral azzes out.
They do not get to tell me when it is time to go to the movies…
No, but I seem to recall being told to go shopping for ducktape…
Condi bought shoes instead.
Can’t tell about BO…he’s tortured by memos.
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Ani, great article. I have been thinking that the 4th estate being beholden monetarily to the Government is worse than separation of church and state.
The church at 1600 seems to think they own the $ printing press, why not the propaganda press?
Excellent post Ani!! Well said. I agree with you 100%. Thank you.
People don’t buy things they don’t want.How do you get the daughter of an old newspaperman to buy and read your paper(btw I read 3 a day for over 20 years)? Simple, don’t insult my intelligence.Don’t pretend you are the keeper of our freedom to know when you are up to your eyeballs carrying the water for your choice to lead us all.
Technology has been creeping up on the old fashioned newspaper for some time. The reason they are all dying now is that they don’t print the news.We’re so far beyond slant it is as if they are an arm of his administration. As we’ve seen when that is so money is never far away.
Right on! Great article Ani!
I have a nice arrangement with the newspapers:
They pretend to report the news, and I pretend to pay for it.
This is outrageous. We have all seen the unprecedented media bias this year–can you imagine what it will be like if their salaries are literally paid by the government in power?! Hello Chavez.