Righties won’t help newspapers
Denver Post PoliticsWest blogger John Andrews invited me and the Independence Institute’s Dave Kopel to his newly minted Centennial Institute on the campus of Colorado Christian Univeristy Friday to discuss the demise of newspapers in America.
I admit to being a bit scared at finding not only Andrews but Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams and former Senator Bill Armsrtong (with son, Will) in the audience, and nary a lefty in sight. But they all behaved themselves, and true to form, they ably represented the Republicans, the party of no solutions.
Kopel and I basically agreed that serious journalism, particularly at the local level, is threatened, as newspapers cut back or fail outright.
We both agreed that this presents a major problem for America.
And that’s why we have the government…-to solve problems. So I suggested government spending (more money for public broadcasting, for example), tax incentives (tax breaks for investments in journalism), and even individual tax credits (for newspaper subscriptions) to help keep serious journalism stay afloat for a few years while the search for a sustainable business model continues.
Andrews and his gang would hear nothing of it, as you can see in this right-wing blog post. But did they offer even the tiniest scrap of solution of their own? Nothing.
But that’s the way it goes with the party of no. Even when we all agree on a problem, they don’t have a solution…-except tax cuts.
Alas, however, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday that no help for newspapers was on the Administration’s agenda, despite the President’s concern about the future of newspapers.