Here we go…

Earlier this week, I reported that Barack Obama is open to a newspaper bailout.  And now, congress is meeting in order to “examine the importance of newspapers to our democracy throughout our nation’s history and the treacherous economic landscape they face.”

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney is reported to have said (from Editor and Publisher):

“The witnesses will review alternative funding options for newspapers in our new and ever-changing electronic age. Since the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the federal government has acknowledged that the press is an institution which is afforded special protections by name. In this spirit, I think that the government can help foster solutions for this industry in ways which protect the independence of newspapers and enables their objective reporting to thrive in a new economic and media climate.”

Now, alternate funding options?  So, if a business fails at doing business, it needs to garner–which is a poor word because it implies work being involved–funds elsewhere…

“Government fostered solutions” to “protect the independence of newspapers” and enabling “objective reporting to thrive.”

Really?  Does the above sentence make any sense?  I didn’t think so.  A free press is important, a free press beholden to the government isn’t free.

Read

Most folks are smart enough to realize the media is in, to quote the title of Bernie Goldberg’s recent book, a slobbering love affair with President Barack Obama, but no one really knew just how much love the mainstream media was lavishing on the guy.

According to the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, the Obama administration has graced the front page of the New York Times 405 through mid-August of this year totaling 119,678 column inches, or 9,973 column feet of Obama coverage on the Times front page alone. That is almost two miles of front-page coverage in the New York Times alone.

Worse still, many critics of the president have called him out for his almost constant media presence, saying that he spends more time campaigning and stumping his positions than he does running the country. Unfortunately for those who support him, the amount of media coverage he receives and the number of interviews he has given–a staggering 66 as of mid-August–gives credence to this claim. During the same amount of time former President George W. Bush gave 16 interviews and Bill Clinton gave a whopping 6.

Maybe the President would do well to spend a little less time on David Letterman’s couch and a lot more time in his chair in the Oval Office…

Read – New York Post

Yes, folks.  Barack Obama is “happy to look at” bills that would bailout newspapers…

Barack Obama said journalism is “critical to our democracy.”

He is true, but he should have phrased it as, “Good journalism is critical to our democracy when it is not beholden to the government.”

Obama went on to say,

“I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding.”

Clearly, the only fact-checking going on is on the blogosphere.

Also, we are putting some stories into context and will have it for you soon.  The only shouting will be that of “Extra!”

Read–The Hill