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.”