The Feds are considering paying the media as necessary in their infrastructure bill. This has been a punchline for many months.
When Biden’s highly touted and even more highly expensive Infrastructure spending bill, and his Build Back Better Act were initially floated the ridiculous breadth of them provoked gallows humor. Looking over the initial proposals generated numerous questions of what qualified in the bill, leading people to grimly declare items like season tickets, or their bar tab could be considered “infrastructure.” Looking over the Democrats’ social spending bill we see they continue to regard tax revenue as a no-limit debit card for their whims.
A proposal for funding one item appears to be almost harmless, while at the same time it seems absurd. The “The”Local Journalism Sustainability Bill One way to look at it is an attempt by an industry to help those who have been in deep distress for some time but were unable to do so after the outbreak of the pandemic. The Democrats would prefer it not be looked at for what it is — a payoff racket.
The structure of this segment is created to prop up an industry that has been beleaguered by the digital revolution, so the solution is a layered support system of handouts. What HR-3940 says it can do is “Incentives to local newspaper and media organizations, as well as other purposes.” This sounds like a magnanimous deal to keep the lights on in the newsroom, but there is quite a bit more in play.
First, publishers will be granted a payroll deduction tax benefit of 50% of a reporter’s salary, up to $50,000 annually. The government will also grant tax breaks up to $5,000 for local companies that advertise in local newspapers. A third incentive for citizens will be to write off $250 per year for local newspaper subscriptions.
There is only one way to look at this proposal — it is a sweeping federal subsidy of an industry. Payroll expenses are being funded by the government, which drives businesses to handle papers and generates an audience. This is a sweeping involvement of the government into a sector that is — by design — supposed to operate separately from federal involvement. This is a very likely way for the government to exert influence.
The journalism industry already shows a political bias. What will the impact of government payments on news media outlets? How dependent can they be on their financial survival? There will be either a greater tendency to view the government entity that granted you the largesse as a friend or a decreased willingness to publish harsh information in fear of losing the flow.
It is similar to the Mafia film arrangement where the godfather gives a large amount of money. This implies that a favor may be requested at some future date. This is also the corrupt side of the same coin found in dictatorships across the third world. They use force to suppress opposition papers. Here, the privileged are buying influence and creating supportive news outlets.
Just to show this is not a hyperbolic dose of hysteria, we have an operating example we can look at right now — PBS, and NPR. Both National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service have been dependent on federal funding for decades. They have both become loyal supporters of the Left Side of the Political aisle. It has become a norm to see fawning coverage about the Democrats and negative assessments of Republicans. NPR even boldly declared that they would not be covering the Hunter Biden laptop news story in advance of the November election.
The relationship of D.C. public broadcasters to D.C. is even documented in a template. Republicans have often raised concerns about pulling taxpayer funding due to biased reporting. It is clear that you depend on those who pay for your coverage.
PBS and NPR do not defend their coverage with their denials of biases. Whenever talk of cutting off the federal spigot is mentioned, they push the kids in front of the cameras — Republicans are determined to take out Big Bird. This dodge doesn’t pose any threat, so eggheads, get down on it. Disney now owns the Muppets, which means that your mesomorph-colored mesomorph emu will not be shipped to Perdue Farms’ kill floor any time soon.
Both these outlets demonstrate the disorganization that is set to grow in the media ecosystem. The feds will be a beneficiary of the industry, just like farm subsidies. Apply the same wisdom that was used to pay farmers not to grow crops or to buy up excess production yields to sell the product to maintain prices high, to the news landscape.
This is the result of grand orders. This is a prime opportunity for a suspect industry to become a government employee. We thought it could get worse.
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