Turning the 4th Estate into a branch of the government
Quote:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.
“This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat,” said Senator Benjamin Cardin.
A Cardin spokesman said the bill had yet to attract any co-sponsors, but had sparked plenty of interest within the media, which has seen plunging revenues and many journalist layoffs.
U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers | Politics | Reuters
It has been my opinion that the MSM has been pseudo-advocates for the statists anyway so perhaps for transparency it would be best to shed any veneer and just codify their status as such . But let's assume there is some integrity left in the industry . Wouldn't such a relationship with the state destroy any chance of objectivity ?
Or let's assume that they have given up any pretense . Would their taking on a status of a non-profit prevent them from editorializing or stating public preferences to a candidate or generally acting in a partisan way ;or are those rules to be selectively enforced also ?