Know Newspapers Petition

Our Primary Goal Was Reached

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:01:00 +0000

When this petition was launched, the goal was to get people outside of journalism to realize that the many closures of newspapers in the past couple years was more than a tragic tale of unemployment, but moreover a serious threat to American Democracy, the loss of watchdogs at the international, national, state and local levels.

As stated several times during the course of the six-month campaign, this was not about saving jobs, or maintaining "paper" newspapers.

We wanted to encourage people to think about what it would mean to lose newspapers — the largest employers of professionally trained and ethically bound journalists.

We achieved that.

The effort was covered by blogs, publications and radio programs around the world. At last count, more than 60 different news organizations had written about the Know Newspapers Petition.

Of course, some will point to the signatures — fewer than 500 of them. It is a rather low number, but, as stated early on, not a surprise. Journalists by their very nature avoid signing petitions of any kind, even those that express dire concerns they personally share.

The problem hasn't gone away, and I for one will continue to try to raise awareness. But this particular effort has expired. The deadline was July 4, 2009.

This site went dark during that period, but it has since been restored for anyone seeking to reference the materials gathered here.

Thank you for your support.

-- TJ Sullivan

End Times

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:24:00 +0000

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

End Times

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

Another Crazy Idea ...

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Mon, 11 May 2009 23:33:00 +0000

Apparently inspired by Sunday's column in The New York Times by Frank Rich, someone at the CEJournal suggests essentially the very same action proposed right here at Know Newspapers back in February with "The Petition to Unplug."

Please visit our FAQ at this link to learn more about the effort.

Here's a snippet from the similar suggestion made recently at CEJournal:

"What if journalism went on strike for, say, a week? No Boulder Daily Camera, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, no ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN (but Fox can continue because it’s not journalism) for an entire week. No WINS radio or KQED. No Time or Newsweek, and no Associated Press dispatches. ESPN? It goes dark. All sources of news, investigation, and non-fiction narrative — off the air, off the Internet and off the newsstands for a week.

What would Google News and all the other blood-sucking news aggregators do? Where would bloggers like me get their bloviational fodder? How would citizens know that a deadly new strain of pandemic flu had just broken out in their local high school? How would they hear that the Taliban in Pakistan had just stolen a nuclear weapon and were threatening to blow up New York City?"

Be sure to read the column by Frank Rich, who observes "Whatever shape journalism ultimately takes in America, make no mistake that in the end we will get what we pay for."

As for the petition ... it has less than 500 signatures to show for more than three months of effort, a situation that I hope is mostly the result of how averse journalists are to signing petitions.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

Why Didn't We Think of That?

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:07:00 +0000

From a Q&A with The Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks, as published online by SpliceToday:

"If the industry doesn’t figure out how to make money off the Internet we’re doomed. The leaner staff works for that, not for print, so I hope they know what they’re doing. I think newspapers should collude, shut down their websites on a Monday, re-open on a Tuesday, charging a small Pay Pal-style gateway fee for all users. People want what we produce; they just want it online. But they have to pay for it, even a nickel a view."

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

'The Onion' to Nix LA Print Edition

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:19:00 +0000

Now even the "fake news" newspapers are cutting back.

The Onion reportedly plans to shut down its print editions in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

General reaction in car-obsessed LA: There was a print edition?

Here's a snippet from MinnPost.com:

Trying to fulfill Monday's promise to get more details on how the Onion's Twin Cities edition is faring, and whether they'll keep printing here, I received a memo from Onion World Headquarters.

It's good news, for now at least. The humor conglomerate confirms published reports it's shutting down L.A. and San Francisco editions, but has "no plans at this time to cease publication in any of our other markets," writes CEO Steve Hannah.

MinnPost.com also quotes the memo, which includes this tidbit:

Overall, we are weathering the storm, and, as you know, we have avoided taking many of the draconian measures employed by other media companies. Unfortunately, despite healthy readership in both Los Angeles and San Francisco (readership has actually risen despite our reduction in copies in recent months) the advertising in both cities has been abysmal.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

No Bailout ... For Obvious Reasons

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:10:00 +0000

No bailout for newspapers, not that anyone in their right mind was considering one to begin with.

Here's a snippet from AFP:

The White House on Monday expressed "concern" and "sadness" over the state of the ailing US newspaper industry, but made clear that a government bailout was not in the cards.

"I don't know what, in all honesty, government can do about it," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "That might be a bit of a tricky area to get into given the differing roles."

Gibbs was responding to a reporter who asked what the White House thought about the recent closure of several US newspapers and a threat to shut down the venerable Boston Globe.

"Obviously (President Barack Obama) believes there has to be a strong free press," the spokesman said. "I think there's a certain concern and a certain sadness when you see cities losing their newspapers or regions of the country losing their newspapers."

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

11 Percent of Top 100 Papers in Bankruptcy

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:00:00 +0000

An elaborate interactive map has been generated by The Wall Street Journal to "track events at the top 50 newspapers." Be sure to both mouse over the map highlights, and to use the timeline bar above the map to review changes by year.

Also, notice the clusters around the nation's biggest cities.

(The New York Times created a similar map about a month ago, but it was not interactive.)

In addition, a list of "adverse events" at the nation's top 100 newspapers was created by The Wall Street Journal. It includes a column denoting which papers are in bankruptcy. The result — 11 percent.

The bankruptcy roll call from The Wall Street Journal:

1. Los Angeles Times

2. Chicago Tribune

3. Philadelphia Inquirer

4. Star-Tribune - Minneapolis

5. The Chicago Sun-Times

6. The Sun - Baltimore, Md

7. The Orlando Sentinel

8. South Florida Sun Sentinel

9. The Hartford Courant

10. Morning Call - Allentown, Pa.

11. Philadelphia Daily News

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

Denver Resurrection An Epic Fail

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:11:00 +0000

Those determined former staffers of Denver's Rocky Mountain News, who bounced back from their newspaper's closure by banding together to launch an online news effort called In Denver Times, have apparently failed to reach their self-imposed, 50,000-subscriber goal by April 23, so ... it appears that news and money are parting ways, again.

So far, the site has not announced how many subscribers it managed to attract, silence that some might say suggests the pay-for-access model fell embarrassingly short of its goal (witness our own petition effort, which has fewer signatures than there were staffers at the former Rocky Mountain News).

Here's a snippet from a story in the Denver Business Journal:

In Denver Times, a news website launched by former staff members of the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, has lost its key financial backers, according to news reports.

The Associated Press quoted David Milstead, a former News business reporter and columnist, as saying the website staff is now looking for new backers for an online news service under a different name.

[Snip...]

The In Denver Times staff had been volunteering their time to report and edit stories for the website since mid-March. If the venture had gone forward, the website's "official" launch would have been May 4.

If only tenacity were dollars.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

Hollywood Likes a Newspaper Story

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:55:00 +0000

In the future, will movies like 'State of Play' cast the lead as a blogger, or maybe an online journalist, instead of a newspaper reporter?

Read A. O. Scott's review. Here's a snippet:

I will admit that I choked up a little at the end of “State of Play.” Not because the story was especially moving — or even, ultimately, all that interesting — but because the iconography of the closing credits tugged at my ink-stained heartstrings. The images are stirring and familiar, though in a few years’ time they may look as quaint as engravings of stagecoaches and steam engines. A breaking, earthshaking story makes its way from computer screen to newsprint. The plates are set, the presses whir, sheaves of freshly printed broadsheet are collated, stacked on pallets and sent out to meet the eyes of the hungry public. Truth has been told, corruption revealed and new oxygen pumped into the civic bloodstream. All that’s missing is a paperboy yelling “extra!” to crowds of commuters in raincoats and fedoras.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

A Model for the Future?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:41:00 +0000

There seems to be a way to mix technology and original news gathering. Patch seems to get it, while the rest aggregate, er, steal.

-- Deanna Glick

*** Sign The Petition ***

Phil Bronstein Represents!

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:59:00 +0000

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Phil Bronstein

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

"Why don't you guys print happy news about yourself and then people will believe in you again."

— Steven Colbert
The Colbert Report

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

'The Imminent End'

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:23:00 +0000

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

NAA Looks Bad in This One

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:06:00 +0000

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Better Know a Lobby - Newspaper Lobby

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

... but it's still hilarious.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

No Yawning in the Press Box

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Wrigley Field, by TJ Sullivan

Thanks to devastating budget cuts and layoffs at newspapers nationwide, the baseball press box is a much less exciting place than it used to be.

ESPN Page 2 columnist Jim Caple expressed similar sentiments last month when he wrote about the issue. Now the Wall Street Journal steps up.

Here's a snippet:

Baseball's independent press corps, once the most powerful in American sports, is fading. As newspapers cut budgets and payrolls, the press boxes at major league ballparks are becoming increasingly lonely places, signaling a future when some games may be chronicled only by wire services, house organs and Web writers watching the games on television.

"I certainly recognize where things are going," says Jack O'Connell, secretary of the Baseball Writers Association of America, the venerable 101-year-old membership organization for the profession. "I certainly see the dark clouds."

Read the full story at this link.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

AP to Ask Aggregators to Share*

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:33:00 +0000

* UPDATED -- The content of the story at NYTimes.com changed from the time of this initial post.

The updated story now says that AP's intention is to demand that Web sites first obtain permission and share revenue before making use of member content. Failing that, the story says, AP will likely resort to legal action.

Here's a snippet:

A.P. executives said they were concerned about a variety of news forums around the Web, including major search engines like Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report that link to news articles, smaller sites that sometimes reproduce articles whole, and companies that sell packaged news feeds.

They said they did not want to stop the appearance of articles around the Web, but to exercise some control over the practice and to profit from it.

More here.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

Saving Newspapers: The Musical

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:40:00 +0000

An amusing look at saving newspapers.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

A 'Twaper?' ... Shirley, You Jest

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:45:00 +0000

In my humble opinion, this story is an April Fools Day joke. But who knows?

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

'Dairy Queen is hiring for $12/hour'

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:20:00 +0000

This is the second in an occasional series by Laura Blewitt, who was introduced in a previous post.

(See all posts by Laura Blewitt at this link.)

The dreaded question: "So, what are you doing with your time now that you've been laid off?"

I have trained myself to respond in full confidence, "Well, I've been blogging."

"Anything else?"

"Ummm, microblogging."

Is it so wrong to just microblog all day long? Is it??

The thing is that I spent much of July, August, September, October and November sending out résumé after résumé to employer after employer hoping for some sort of response. Sometimes it got so bad that a rejection e-mail was welcomed, because at least that meant somebody actually considered me for a position.

I just don't think sending out résumés to potential employers really works anymore. Don't worry, I mean, I'm still doing it just in case. But my heart's not in it.

I wish I had kept track of the number of positions I applied to right around the time of my graduation so this could be a little more scientific, but alas, I did not think about the potential for statistical analysis in online résumé submission at the time. So for now, let's just say I applied for many, many jobs. (So scientific, right?) And in the course of five months I interviewed for four full-time jobs. I rejected two offers. One company rejected me. And then FINALLY God graced me with an offer I wouldn't dream of refusing.

The point of all this personal information is that my returns weren't successful enough for me to be very enthusiastic about jumping back into the saddle and spending my time writing and rewriting cover letters and résumés for employers who don't even plan to look at them.

I know there are other options out there, but are they realistic? Has anybody ACTUALLY found a full-time position via Twitter, or was that just a tall tale construed by the Twitter Gods to get poor Shmoes like me to waste their days seaching for #jobangels hash tags?

Either way I've come to terms with the fact that this process will take a long time. I'm hoping for a quicker come-back than my previous five-month record, but I'm realistic.

In the meantime I've agreed to freelance for a pretty well-established political blog based in Austin. I think it will be good for me keep myself active and out in the journalism game, even though the pay will be, well, not likely too great. But the exposure will be great.

This leaves me with one final question: should I get a temporary job working behind a coffee bar or tutoring kids after school just to get by while I'm hustling the Web for a "real job?"

It came to my attention last week that Dairy Queen is hiring for $12/hour. I tested the Twittersphere with notion of working there. Because as the late 2Pac said, "Only God [and Twitter] can judge me." (He died before Twitter's creation - but it totally sounds like something he would've said, right?)

Here's the response I received.

The Twittersphere has spoken.

(Twitter This)

-- Laura Blewitt

*** Sign The Petition ***

Simon Says Charge for Content

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Graphic by TJ Sullivan

Former journalist David Simon, creator of "The Wire," continues to champion the need for newspapers in America. (See previous post).

In a story published Friday by the Guardian, Simon goes after newspaper owners, argues in favor of paid content, and foretells an age of rampant political corruption.

Here's a snippet:

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the award-winning writer and producer launches a tirade against newspaper owners who, he says, showed "contempt for their product" and are now reaping the whirlwind. But he rejects the idea that newspapers should seek ways to embrace the new world of free information, arguing that they must urgently start charging money for content distributed online.

"Oh, to be a state or local official in America over the next 10 to 15 years, before somebody figures out the business model," says Simon, a former crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. "To gambol freely across the wastelands of an American city, as a local politician! It's got to be one of the great dreams in the history of American corruption."

The full story is at the Guardian.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

'Newspapers ... There are No Substitutes'

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:46:00 +0000

Graphic by TJ Sullivan

Should the advertising industry try to help struggling newspapers?

Yes, says Mike Hughes, president and creative director at the Martin Agency, which counts the Newspaper Association of America as a client.

Here's a snippet from Hughes' column published this week by Advertising Age:

It's time the advertising industry did something important.

For our own self-interest -- and for the common good -- we need to start paying attention to newspapers again.

To begin with, it would be good for our business. For our own selfish reasons, we need a medium that targets the well-informed. We need a medium that lets us tell our whole story -- and not just the 30-second version. With each passing month, we need more media that target people where they live. We need more media that let marketers build a brand and ask for the business. We need more media that let writers, art directors, photographers and illustrators practice their crafts.

We need a medium with the immediacy and importance of newspapers.

[Snip ...]

Online or in print, we need newspapers. There are no substitutes. Magazines, TV channels and websites don't do the same things. Not even close.

Our industry needs newspapers -- but just as important, so does humankind. The world needs the kind of journalism practiced by newspapers when they're at their best. The local investigative pieces. The foreign correspondence. The war reporting. Without them, news goes unreported. Viewpoints are narrowed. Governments can run amok.

Read the full story at this link.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

A Very Bad Week at The NY Times

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:27:00 +0000

www.NYTimes.com

The newspaper industry's woes continued to take a severe toll this week. It seems no publication is immune, not even one of the best newspapers in the world (and, in my humble opinion, this one is the best).

The New York Times announced another round of heartbreaking budget cuts Thursday, including "60-70" layoffs in the newsroom, 100 layoffs on the business side, and a 10- to 15-percent reduction in freelancer spending.

In addition, most staff members will be required to take 10 days of unpaid leave, and endure a "temporary" 5-percent pay cut. The pay cut is expected to last nine months. (Furloughs would be extended to "most nonunion employees at The Boston Globe.)

Here's a snippet from The New York Times:

Last fall, Times executives said they did not anticipate any news staff reductions in 2009. Similarly, Mr. Keller said on Thursday that with a pay cut, management expects “that the newsroom will get through the year without a round of layoffs.”
“I wish I could make that a promise,” he added. “I can’t.”
In 2008, The Times eliminated 100 newsroom jobs through buyouts and layoffs. But with hiring for new positions, the net reduction was about half that. It has the largest news staff of any paper in the country, and one of few that has not contracted sharply.

Read the full story at this link.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

College Newspapers Endangered Too

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:04:00 +0000

Photo by TJ Sullivan

College newspapers are feeling the pain just as surely as their mainstream media counterparts.

The vote set to take place Friday at the University of Texas at Austin is just one of the latest examples.

The Texas Student Media Board has already sold its printing press (they owned their own press?) and laid off the four workers who ran it. Now the board is set to decide Friday on further cuts, including whether to lay off the adviser to The Daily Texan.

The Daily Texan published a story about the pending vote earlier this month. Here's a snippet:

Under the recommendations, the print representative’s position will become an ad supplement designing position, and the KVRX and Texas Student Television advisers positions will be combined into a single broadcast adviser position, [Texas Student Media director Kathy] Lawrence said.

The positions of Daily Texan adviser and advertising supplements manager will be combined into the role of print adviser. The print adviser will also advise the Texas Travesty and Cactus Yearbook. The Travesty currently does not have an adviser, and Lawrence serves as the Cactus’ adviser.

“In no way does any of this represent dissatisfaction with performance,” Lawrence said. “This is just an attempt to keep our budget a little less in the red.”

The job losses are not certain until the Texas Student Media Board votes on Lawrence’s recommendations at its March 27 meeting. The employees would not be laid off until the end of the fiscal year on Aug. 31.

Bad as that might sound to some, there are college newspapers making due with far less.

Read the full story at this link.

* See related Facebook group named "Keep Richard Finnell At The Daily Texan."

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

'Prices Are Well Below Recent Years'

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:31:00 +0000

A message from John Cribb of Cribb, Greene & Associates, the oldest newspaper and publication brokerage in the United States.

(via Fitz & Jen)

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

No Crying in Baseball ... Until Now

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:37:00 +0000

Photo by TJ Sullivan

ESPN Page 2 columnist Jim Caple wrote in his Off Base column this week about what newspaper cutbacks and closings will mean to baseball fans.

Here's a snippet from one of several points Caple makes:

It may seem that the Web provides more news, but apart from major sites that can afford to hire staff reporters (such as ESPN.com), the Web mostly provides a swift spread of news first reported somewhere else. Unless you root for the Yankees or Red Sox, the news about your favorite team still comes largely from the local beat writers.

Granted, game scores and player/manager comments don't always qualify as news. Are fans really enlightened when they read a manager's quote that he thought his pitcher "made one or two bad pitches" in a 7-2 loss? Even trade rumors can be overvalued. Yes, it's interesting to know whether a team is shopping a player. But it's not absolutely necessary, because teams will announce if there is a deal.

On the other hand, and this is very significant, beat writers report news you otherwise wouldn't know concerning injuries, disgruntled players, clubhouse issues, explanations for why a manager did something, team strategies and philosophies, etc. They are able to cull information from sources because they are around people long enough to develop a relationship that is solid enough for the sources to open up. They know when people are happy, frustrated or upset because they are there to see them and speak with them. Beat writers also can put the day's events into proper context because they have the perspective that comes with the job.

Read the full column at this link.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***

Thanks, But No Thanks, Sen. Cardin*

noreply@blogger.com (TJ Sullivan) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:00:00 +0000

cardin.senate.gov

US Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, has proposed a way for Washington D.C. to assist in the recovery of the American newspaper industry.

His idea is to exempt newspapers from that most American of burdens — tax payments on everything from revenue to charitable contributions (should anyone happen to be so civic-minded as to donate money to save a newspaper). To take advantage of this offer, however, a newspaper would have to operate as a non-profit.

Although newspapers could continue most of their primary functions (like keeping a watchful eye on U.S. Senators like Cardin), they wouldn't be allowed to make political endorsements. That's a no-no in the tax code.

Of course, even if they were allowed to editorialize as non-profits, they'd best abstain, at the very least, from editorializing on issues involving taxation (considering the obvious hypocrisy).

The following quote from Cardin's statement appears at AdAge.com:

"We are losing our newspaper industry," Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, D.-Md., said in a statement. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."

Sure, there are already a couple non-profit newspapers in operation without the aid of such a law. Besides that, Cardin is not the first elected official to express concern for the threat posed to democracy by dying newspapers, and with good reason.

Much as politicians love to complain about "the media," they know full well that without ethically bound, professional newspaper journalists, the ability of elected officials to communicate with constituents would be limited to two-minute TV reports, radio talk show blather, and an Internet so full of pundits and patent lunatics that it's damned hard to find serious news bloggers (or whatever the term is this week for unaccredited, unaffiliated, smart, reporter-like writers who publish online).

Surely all of Washington is wondering where officeholders will turn in the future when their complicated piece of legislation is being misconstrued and misunderstood in 30-second sound bites. Or, perhaps more importantly: Who do you sic on a crooked opponent if not a newspaper reporter willing to invest weeks digging through records and receipts?

Seriously. The CBS program 60 Minutes only has 60 minutes a week (less than that if you discount the air consumed by Andy Rooney). And lest some think Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh are capable of carrying such water, think again. Both come with far too much of their own baggage to carry anything for anyone else.

As much as Americans love to hate their local newspaper, deep down most people (especially the ones seated near the center of the aisle) have always believed that they could trust the paper more than any other source.

Which is precisely the problem with ideas like this.

As I've said before, government assistance of any kind won't wash with the Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics, particularly the sections of the code that call upon journalists to:

* Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived ...

* Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility ...

* Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity.

I have no reason to doubt that Sen. Cardin's intentions are anything but honorable, but that doesn't matter. Should he succeed in saving newspapers this way in the short term, he will most certainly kill them in the long run.

Should this legislation pass, all subsequent non-profit newspaper coverage of Cardin and his Congressional colleagues would be tainted by a public perception of reciprocation.

No bad news would be bad enough, and good news would always be considered a quid pro quo.

It matters little that no such thing is being requested, nor offered. Perception in this situation is reality (and I haven't even addressed the First Amendment issues).

It's easy to guess where all this is going.

So, thanks, Sen. Cardin, but no thanks. The newspaper industry can only be hurt by government assistance.

* Post updated/corrected 10:30 pm PDT

More at Fitz & Jen.

And even more from Steve Yelvington.

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

*** Sign The Petition ***