Topic: Obama turns back on print media
ThomasJB's photo
Mon 05/04/09 06:30 PM
[qutoe]
White House: No bailout for Newspapers
Posted: 04:33 PM ET

From CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry

WASHINGTON – This just in: More bad news for the newspaper industry, as President Obama's top aides signal it will not be getting a government bailout. With the Boston Globe just the latest big-city newspaper teetering on the edge of shutdown, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs brushed aside a question about whether the federal government will consider stepping in to help save newspapers, as it has with so many other industries.

"I don't know what, in all honesty, government can do about it," Gibbs told reporters. Gibbs signaled one difference from bailouts for the auto industry and financial firms is that it's a "bit of a tricky area" for the White House to be helping media companies that cover the President, given the potential for conflicts of interest.

It's not like the President, who is routinely spotted with a newspaper tucked under his arm when he's getting into a motorcade, is completely unsympathetic to the industry. Gibbs said Obama feels "concern and sadness" over the plight of the print media, though the spokesman couldn't resist a poke at some of the reporters in the briefing room who had recently posed skeptical questions about the President's push to trim a small amount of federal spending.

"You guys didn't think $100 million meant a lot a few weeks ago," Gibbs said. "But looking at some of the balance sheets, $100 million seems to mean a lot." Ouch.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/04/wh-no-bailout-for-newspapers/


Biting the hand that elected him?

no photo
Mon 05/04/09 06:54 PM
You don't seriously think they should bail out news papers do you?

no photo
Mon 05/04/09 06:56 PM
I don't blame him

I can't seem to buy a news paper that isn't either pushing a partisan propaganda agenda

or they are so thin and hardly cover any news but still want a dollar for the paper

Dragoness's photo
Mon 05/04/09 07:04 PM
Print news is going out of business soon. People just don't buy it anymore. It is sad to see it go though. My first publishing was a local newspaper.

willing2's photo
Mon 05/04/09 07:04 PM
Edited by willing2 on Mon 05/04/09 07:05 PM
For the internet, paper is becoming obsolete.
I get all my local news here for free. Why spend the .75?
Some internet news organizations are offering subscriptions to view with them.

ThomasJB's photo
Mon 05/04/09 07:11 PM

You don't seriously think they should bail out news papers do you?



No I don't, but I do find it a little inconsistent.