No newspapers would be bad news. Really bad.
As Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-MD, noted, “While we have many news sources, we rely on newspapers for in-depth reporting that follows important issues, records events, and exposes misdeeds.” I would add they prod justice, make or break legislation, start conversations with family, friends and the community and forge a common local identity so necessary for feeling at home in a place.
With many faltering and some closing around the country, including Denver’s Rocky Mountain News and The Baltimore Examiner, communities will suffer.
But it does not follow that the government should bail them out in the form of the Newspaper Revitalization Act proposed by Cardin earlier this week. His legislation would allow newspapers to turn themselves into nonprofits, similar to public broadcasting outlets.
First, just because we decided to take over a few financial institutions does not mean that government bailouts are the solution for each industry. That is like saying we treat depression with the drug Zoloft, therefore all sicknesses should be treated with Zoloft.
Cardin’s legislation does not inject newspapers with taxpayer dollars – but it is only a matter of time before that happens if the bill passes. Public broadcasting relies heavily on taxpayers. Let’s take Maryland Public Television as an example. State taxpayers contribute 30 percent of its budget, with the remainder coming from individual donations, foundations and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, itself supported by taxes.
So this act would turn tax contributors into tax recipients at a time when the state needs more businesses to support an increasingly gargantuan government. And it would prevent newspapers from endorsing candidates for office to protect its nonprofit status. Since many newspapers no longer endorse candidates or only choose to in a few elections, that would have an arguably marginal public impact.
The main problem is that MPT must petition the state government each year for more dollars, describing in detail why it is worthy of them to legislators. This is no big deal when only one station is run as a partial ward of those in power.
But if all or most papers depended on the largesse of state overseers, what would happen to editorial independence? Would papers in Maryland become arms of the Democratic Party – the dominant political party?
Would state legislators sit on newspaper boards and decide which stories are worth publishing? Is this the scenario that Sen. Cardin envisions producing exposes on state corruption? Newspapers themselves would become fiefdoms of those in power at the expense of the minority party and civil society, which depends on accurate information to make decisions about how to vote.
A public broadcasting format for newspapers is bad for other reasons. MPT is known for quality programming, but breaking hard news is not its strength. Try to think of one story public television broke in the last year. In his testimony before the state legislature earlier this month MPT President and CEO Robert J. Shuman did not mention one example of a big story MPT generated. Instead his remarks focused on the station’s “outreach,” “education,” and how it was “reflecting community” – all good things in their own right, but not the foundation of a vibrant newspaper.
This says nothing of the tone of the news. The high-brow style of public television is the stuff made fun of by comics on “Saturday Night Live.” It’s great that those who enjoy reruns of British murder mysteries and exposes on “Eatin’ Crabs Chesapeake Style!” have a home. But newspapers cover it all, the best with attitude and a demeanor that does not take itself too seriously.
That frame of mind exists at newspapers because they must prove themselves worthy to be read each day through subscriptions, eyeballs on the Web and single copy sales. Public television does not have that pressure – it exists for the “greater good.”
While it is sad that some newspapers are failing, government saving them would come at the expense of everything they hold dear and prevent them from finding a sustainable business model. It would also kill television news, quiet the blogosphere and take away the reason for being for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” — all of which rely on newspaper reporting in large part for their existence.
So newspaper owners beware. You can drink from the cup of government. But you can’t do it without taking down truth, justice, gossip and the funniest guy on television.
Washington Examiner columnist Marta H. Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute.
