1. The labor unions are dictating what some papers can – and can’t write.  This is disturbing, but there’s nothing unconstitutional about it.  The union pension fund in essence owns the paper, and does have a right to edit content.  The problem comes when there is no disclosure – when the readers and subscribers aren’t aware that the paper is owned by labor unions and think that the content is independent.

2. The White House has launched its own press agency.  One of the cornerstones of our Republic is a free press, with protected free speech, able to report both positively and negatively on politicians.  Now the press corp is being shut out, while the WH hands them prepackaged press kits.  No need for investigative reporting in Washington anymore, apparently!

Frankly, this worries me even more than the White House overreaching and meddling into private business.

3. Next in line for a bailout?  Could be the newspapers, which have been losing subscribers.  It’s not the new technology of the internet or the biased writing or anything – the government must step in!  Remember how they helped the auto industry, promising that the White House had no interest in running the company – then saw to it that CEO was replaced, called for new board members, and are meddling in the bankruptcy affairs, insisting valid creditors take less than they are legally entitled to in order to give more money to the union?

Yeah.  Coming to a fishwrap near you.

Everyone was reporting on Obama publicly laughing at the thought of Rush Limbaugh dying that they seem to have missed this remark at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner:

…it’s also a time of real hardship for the field of journalism. And like so many other businesses in this global age, you’ve seen sweeping changes and technology and communications that lead to a sense of uncertainty and anxiety about what the future will hold.

Across the country, there are extraordinary, hardworking journalists who have lost their jobs in recent days, recent weeks, recent months. And I know that each newspaper and media outlet is wrestling with how to respond to these changes, and some are struggling simply to stay open. And it won’t be easy. Not every ending will be a happy one.

But it’s also true that your ultimate success as an industry is essential to the success of our democracy. It’s what makes this thing work…

And that kind of reporting is worth preserving — not just for your sake, but for the public’s. We count on you to help us make sense of a complex world and tell the stories of our lives the way they happen, and we look for you for truth, even if it’s always an approximation, even if — (laughter.)

This is a season of renewal and reinvention. That is what government must learn to do, that’s what businesses must learn to do, and that’s what journalism is in the process of doing. And when I look out at this room and think about the dedicated men and women whose questions I’ve answered over the last few years, I know that for all the challenges this industry faces, it’s not short on talent or creativity or passion or commitment. It’s not short of young people who are eager to break news or the not-so-young who still manage to ask the tough ones time and time again. These qualities alone will not solve all your problems, but they certainly prove that the problems are worth solving. And that is a good place as any to begin.

In light of recent Democrat sponsored bills to bail out newspapers, and some Obama administration appointees hold the view that government should license reporters and take over the industry, “problems worth solving” = $$$.

Tagged as: bailout, free press, free speech, newspapers, Obama, taxes