The plan to save American Newspapers

Robert McChesney on "The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers"

The New York Times and Washington Post have become the latest newspapers to announce plans to downsize their staffs. As papers across the country continue to fold or downsize, policy officials and experts are contemplating a series of proposals to help newspapers stay afloat. On Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland has introduced the Newspaper Revitalization Act. Meanwhile, in an article in The Nation magazine titled The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers, media activists Robert McChesney and John Nichols are proposing a multi-part journalism economic stimulus package. [includes rush transcript]

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• newspapers
• robert
• mcchesney
• democracy
• now

[IWantDemocracyNow]

But , Amy and Juan have argues that local papers do a great job of original journalism. And yes they are full of propaganda, but they also contain bits of original stuff. and that will now be lost.

I think they should just all go online, and get paid just as much.

[TheTechnoa]

go green save paper.....anyways the internet covers everything that a newspaper does.

[KIFulgore]

Oh yes, government intervention and spending... we certainly need more of that!

Funny, it seems the "death" of newspapers in favor of online journalism is something liberals and environmentalists should be all for. Think of the number of trees it would save.

Part of the Reduce, Re-use, Recycle program is *reducing* the amount of paper we use in the first place, right?

[kentube59]

Because the liberal agenda is already pushed in the schools. Makes perfect sense to use tax dollars to prop up the liberal rags. Why can't the Dems support papers for supporting them?

Public television & radio are going the same direction.

[whoo689]

If people don't wanna support failed, shitty, old, stale newspapers, that's that! People don't wanna read them anymore and are looking to better online sources. So be it. People like Goodman and McChesney are such idiots. Michael McChesney's a professor, for god sakes! Yet he supports such a dumbass plan. Of course, he's also a leftist Marxist douche.

[whoo689]

why are the people who support failing businesses and industries so spineless?? COMPETE for god sakes! And don't be so whiny and wimpy that you can't handle your favorite companies going under. Lots of people do during recessions and bad times and whatnot. But their companies don't get bailouts, do they?

[whoo689]

Protectionism is stupid. Let failing companies fail. That's how a true free market should work. Once you get gov't involved, it just distorts everything and screws shit up. No bailouts, no exceptions. I'm getting tired of this bailout frenzy. We don't want a bailed out economy! We need economic growth and strength. Fuck the papers if they can't compete. We can do fine with online media. Who says online sources can't hold the powers that be accountable any less than shitty papers?

[bebop54]

let 'em go down ...

[xxashyy]

And all this scare mongering from the liberals "It's the death of journalism as we know it" or "newspapers dying are a threat to democracy". All this is nonsense. First of all, we haven't had real democracy or journalism even when newspapers were thriving. Also to say that there will be no journalism if the papers go down is a stretch too.