Key senator against direct aid to newspapers

Any direct assistance for ailing newspapers doesn’t seem to be in the cards, according to one of the chief proponents in the Senate of newspapers’ survival.

“I’m against a bailout for the newspapers. I think that’d be terrible — start to interfere the government in newspapers,” Sen. Bed Cardin (D-Md.) told liberal talk radio show host Bill Press. “I am very much opposed to any direct federal help.”

Cardin has introduced a bill that would allow news organizations that have been struggling with a changing business model to restructure as nonprofits.

He said that while bloggers and television and radio reporters are important, the fundamental source for news — and investigative journalism — is in the newspaper industry.

“Most of our news comes from the local newspaper. Bloggers are important — editorializing on the internet is important,” Cardin said. “But the source of news, the investigative reporting, is critically important — not only to the development of news but accountability in a democratic society.”

Listen to the entire interview here.