Thread: Obama open to newspaper bailout bill

Obama open to newspaper bailout bill

By Michael O'Brien - 09/20/09 04:24 PM ET

The president said he is "happy to look at" bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.

"I haven't seen detailed proposals yet, but I'll be happy to look at them," Obama told the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade in an interview.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced S. 673, the so-called "Newspaper Revitalization Act," that would give outlets tax deals if they were to restructure as 501(c)(3) corporations. That bill has so far attracted one cosponsor, Cardin's Maryland colleague Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D).

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had played down the possibility of government assistance for news organizations, which have been hit by an economic downturn and dwindling ad revenue.

In early May, Gibbs said that while he hadn't asked the president specifically about bailout options for newspapers, "I don't know what, in all honesty, government can do about it."

Obama said that good journalism is "critical to the health of our democracy," but expressed concern toward growing tends in reporting -- especially on political blogs, from which a groundswell of support for his campaign emerged during the presidential election.

"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," he said.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... ilout-bill
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Comments 1695

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... ilout-bill

His Acorn supporters! Let them fail so the real news will prevail.

Text of S. 673:


More corporate/crony welfare at least, at most, a step in the direction of the "biggies" becoming state-controlled publications which is probably why this is being kept so low-key.

But knowing how much obama and his rabid pack of liberal dogs despise alternative media sources, combined with the fact that the dems introduced this bill and obama is "open" to it, we know there's something behind it to the government's benefit

What's next.......his main cheerleaders in the world of MSM television networks?

We really should try to stop this thing. We can't afford more "bailouts" and the government entangling itself financially with the media is just asking for another government takeover just as we've seen with the auto industry, banking, etc.




Text of S. 673: A bill to allow certain newspapers to be treated as described in section 501(c)(3) of the...
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This version: Introduced in Senate. This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the Senate for consideration. This is the latest version of the bill available on this website.

S 673 IS

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 673

To allow certain newspapers to be treated as described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of such Code.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 24, 2009

Mr. CARDIN (for himself and Ms. MIKULSKI) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A BILL

To allow certain newspapers to be treated as described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of such Code.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN NEWSPAPERS AS EXEMPT FROM TAX UNDER SECTION 501.

(a) In General- Paragraph (3) of section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting ‘(including a qualified newspaper corporation)’ after ‘educational purposes’.

(b) Qualified Newspaper Corporation- Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended--

(1) by redesignating subsection (r) as subsection (s), and

(2) by inserting after subsection (q) the following new subsection:

‘(r) Qualified Newspaper Corporation- For purposes of this title, a corporation or organization shall be treated as a qualified newspaper corporation if--

‘(1) the trade or business of such corporation or organization consists of publishing on a regular basis a newspaper for general circulation,

‘(2) the newspaper published by such corporation or organization contains local, national, and international news stories of interest to the general public and the distribution of such newspaper is necessary or valuable in achieving an educational purpose, and

‘(3) the preparation of the material contained in such newspaper follows methods generally accepted as educational in character.’.

(c) Unrelated Business Income of a Qualified Newspaper Corporation- Section 513 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

‘(k) Advertising Income of Qualified Newspaper Corporations- The term ‘unrelated trade or business’ does not include the sale by a qualified newspaper corporation (as defined in section 501(r)) of any space for commercial advertisement to be published in a newspaper, to the extent that the space allotted to all such advertisements in such newspaper does not exceed the space allotted to fulfilling the educational purpose of such qualified newspaper corporation.’.

(d) Deduction for Charitable Contributions- Subparagraph (B) of section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting ‘(including a qualified newspaper corporation as defined in section 501(r))’ after ‘educational purposes’.

(e) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act.

Obama said that good journalism is "critical to the health of our democracy,"

Ah...so that's why our democracy is in such bad health!

Is this another way of heavily censoring what news appears in print? Oh wait, never mind, they papers are doing it already...that's why they're in financial trouble. They've prostituted themselves for the mighty O already. Bailing them out won't do a thing to help them.