Media Bailout: Here It Comes

How special and right on the heels of the FTC event I blogged on yesterday suggesting this may be in the works.

Today, via Danny Glover at AIM. So, some of you thought the Left were just liberal pols? Not on your freaking life. The real Lefties aim to destroy the freedoms that gave birth to this nation. And too many moderates have a habit of simply going along. This is repulsive, but obviously has the sanction of the FTC.

From the private sector, to health care, and now media, the federal government under the progressives wants to take over and run the whole damned thing. One should not underestimate how serious this is, nor how serious they are. We need to start ending public options from business, to health care and, of course, as regards media. They already have PBS and we know where that has gone.

We can not allow this to happen. I'll give them my keyboard when they take it from my cold, dead hands. And it won't be the only thing I'm carrying if they try to come for it! It's time to start drawing lines in the sand around our freedoms and our Rights. It isn't only felons and degenerates that have them. That's the America the progressives want, not an America for us. We need to stand up against what's going on in Washington now more than ever and turn things around beginning with the mid-term elections in 2010.

Rep. Henry Waxman trekked from Capitol Hill to Federal Trade Commission headquarters today to deliver a message to journalists and news consumers: All of you need to reach a consensus about working with the government in order to bail out the struggling news industry.

The California Democrat, who chairs the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, didn't say it quite so bluntly, but his point was clear. "Government's going to have to be involved, in one way or the other," to save journalism from an ongoing "market failure" that will only worsen without intervention, Waxman said.

He spoke at the second day of an FTC workshop on how journalism can survive in the Internet era.

Waxman bemoaned the demise of newspapers across the country, including in Denver and Seattle, and warned that the troubling media trends will continue. "This recent depression in the media sector is not cyclical," Waxman said. "It is structural."

"Congress can't impose a solution" to that structural problem, he said. But the government should partner with the media industry to ensure a sound future for journalism. Waxman praised the record of "independent" reporting in U.S. history and said it has implications for democracy.

Comments

[Good Lt.]

Unprecedented, in that a Democrat Congress and Democrat administration wants to shove the government into the press and pretend it has "a role" to play in "shaping" the press.

Now - let's assume the media accepts the bailout (which will confirm their roles as government lapdogs and not watchdogs, as no real journalist of principle would ever accept government oversight and strings-attached "bailout" funding).

Now they get the strings. Phone calls from the White House and bureaucrats urging corrections or "changes" to things they don't like seeing or hearing about themselves. If the editors protest, guess what. They took the public money, and now they have to play by the government's rules.

The result? No more independent press. Instead, we officially - for the first time in US history - have Pravda.

Unprecedented indeed, and not a precedent any real American would want set. Unless, of course, you're a lifelong power-lusting statist like Henry Waxman (D).

[halfacarage]

Will it be mandated like health care? Will there be penalties for not buying or reading a bailed out media. Jail time for not tuning in to MSNBC? IRS as enforcing division?

[syn]

"some of you thought the Left were just liberal pols? Not on your freaking life. The real Lefties aim to destroy the freedoms that gave birth to this nation. And too many moderates have a habit of simply going along. This is repulsive, but obviously has the sanction of the FTC."

Liberals controlling free press, reminds me of Libertarians who want legalized pot; in the end, both are expanding Big Government Statism.

A Libertarian friend, an anesthesiologist, cares only about legalizing pot; nothing else matters to him. I pointed out to him that by legalizing pot he is de facto putting pot into the hands of Big Brother government regulation and taxation. In other words, by legalizing pot this Libertarian will in fact expand government Statism. This Libertarian doctor does not yet seem to understand that by keeping pot illegal he have greater freedom for him to smoke better quality pot at a lower price.

Likewise; Liberals and Moderates who believe in bailing out the press with government money are fooling themselves into believing they'll still be able to enjoy freedom of the press.

[Peter]

Great. Henry "Nostrilitis Humongous" Waxman thinks government should be running newspapers and broadcast media. Just like they're running Government Motors, the banks, Wall Street. Just like they plan on running health care and taking over the Internet. Folks, this is a dangerous mix of fascism and socialism. We can guarantee that once the federal government takes over the newspapers via the bailout, you won't hear a peep of criticism. Not that there is much right now anyway, since so much of it is in the tank for Our Lord and Savior, but there won't be any once the federal government owns the media.

These fascists want to be able to control the flow of information to the public in order to advance its own agenda. Period.

[USMC]

"the federal government under the progressives" Dan wrote it exactly! Progressives are a disgusting lot. The Progressive ideology is anti-American and should be treated as such. The followers of this ideology have viewed us as enemies since their beginning.

It's time pro-Americans started viewing and treating the progressives the same. Like Lt. Col. West said we need to get our "bayonets" ready. Proverbial "bayonets" for all you weak sisters that don't like to hear revolutionary speak.

I disagree with Dan on his treatment of Beck but Dan gets it when ti comes to the enemy within.

I'll be damned if I let that pig nosed Waxman and that big eared turd Obama destroy my Country. These guys are punk ass bitches. No way in hell will they win this fight for America. 2010 will be a rough year.

Ya hear me Bob? YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE!! By the way all you progressives aka liberals aka socialists enjoy another choice quote that backs me up:

"Under these circumstances, there will be no harm if the interests of Muslims converge with the interests of the socialists in the fight against the crusaders, despite our belief in the infidelity of socialists." - Osama Bin Laden in 2003

Damn! A mass murdering terrorist has no problem aligning himself with "socialists"! Why would an enemy of America align himself with leftists? They have the same goals and hatred.

Perhaps these are being "mischaracterized" or "taken out of context".

[IslamoLlama]

"-- We can not allow this to happen. I'll give them my keyboard when they take it from my cold, dead hands. And it won't be the only thing I'm carrying if they try to come for it! --"

Wow. Step back from the kool-aid before you hurt yourself, Dan.

What a freak'n loon.

[Elmo]

He's got a townhall meetin, a few miles away, on Sunday afternoon. I'll pass. Being in the same room, with walkin talkin sacks a doodie? (man's gotta know his limitations).

One could make the argument that the species is indeed devolving. Well, at least we are certain ... half the species is.

This will not end well.

[Al in St. Lou]

We're on a path to becoming a banana republic. Who will be our Margaret Thatcher?

[Real American]

He who pays the piper calls the tune. We all know that the government isn't going to sit on the sidelines and allow bought off media to be independent and critical of government. They haven't gone with a hands off approach regarding the auto bailouts and they wouldn't here. Unfortunately, the conflict is just too great. Free Press is TOO important for the government to be involved, take over and screw up - just like health care.

[Dick Turpin]

These guys are scumbags. Unfortunately, they have been able to spread their influence to a variety of issues over a long time period. They are like termites that need to FINALLY be addressed after part of the deck has caved in. Like you, they can pry my keyboard from my cold dead fingers...but I am still lucky enough to have the advantage(s) of the 2nd Admendment. Thus, although I might go out..I won't go out quietly.

"Give me liberty or give me death."-Patrick Henry

[JustOneMan]

BREAKING NEWS

Congress to push for a new Bloggers Tax. Each post and response will be levied a 10 cent tax to support the News Paper bailout.

[Robert Belvedere]

1) RE: Waxman's statements: Spoken like a true fascist [using the acutal meaning of the word].

2) Anytime, anytime, the government forms a partnership with a private business or industry it holds the figurative majority stock in the company or companies. It has the power to force the private businesses involved to do whatever it wants done [as Ayn Rand so eloquently put it 'at the point of a gun']. And the company or companies can do nothing about it. This is most especially true when the government is holding the purse strings. Once the weed of government germinates inside of a company or industry, it feeds off them and its growth is uncontrollable because they've got might on their side. All controlling power eventually and inevitably accures to the government and the employees are absorbed into the Borg-like Collective.

And those working or owning the private businesses involved in such an arrangement who are in favor of the 'collaboration' all end-up becoming enslaved to the government. Many are willing to do this [see the rest of the AIM report and read their sheep-like comments]. And, I suspect, because, in this case the vast majority of people in the news business are Leftists, they will happily sit there while their shackles are applied. They will be overjoyed morphing into apparatchiks.

3) Thanks for alerting us to this, Dan.

Quoted from and Linked to at: AT THE POINT OF A GUN