It’s a good and honorable thing for a man to pay his debts, but when the man is a politician, a few questions are in order. Such as; Who does he owe, and for what, and whose money is he going to use to repay the debt.
Over the weekend, President Obama floated the proposal to bailout the failing newspapers. Of course this was done in a way that his proposal was a ‘suggestion’ to congress to make it happen. This is good strategy, if it works, he can take the credit, if the bill is actually read in the light of day, and fails, he can throw another friend under the bus with a straight face.
It is a centuries old, and honored, part of our society to have an independent, free, critical, Fourth Estate, keeping watch over our leaders, much as The Order Of Ephors does. Years ago, Edmond Burke looked up at the gallery in the House of Commons and said, “ Yonder sit’s the fourth estate, more important than them all.” , and so coined the term. Burke obviously understood the power of the press. BHO does too, after all the media played a big role in getting him elected, and he won’t forget his ‘honorable debt’.
If you look around the world, you will see different treatments of the press by government. Free societies value, and respect their press, and rely on it to keep an eye on government. Some leaders silence the press at the point of a gun, such as Hugo Chaves has done in Venezuela. Since we are much more sophisticated (read sneaky), we just buy them out and take them over. More civilized, you know, old chap…
Recent history, even during our young presidents lifetime gives an example. One of the largest and most powerful newspapers in the world was Pravda. Bought and paid for by the government of the thankfully defunct Soviet Union. Nary an anti government word appeared in their pages, because they were bought and paid for by the very institution they were supposed to watch and report on. When BHO buys the New York Times, do you really expect to be able to read about the misdeeds of our government? Or any fair reporting, other than the official party line on any of the issues of the day?
The next question the American people should have is: Where is the money coming from? If BHO wants to buy the New York Times or any other newspaper, I say, have at it. Out of your own pocket. Just like Rupert Murdock did. Don’t extort money from me to build your very own private propaganda arm. If I had enough fish to wrap in that rag, I’d get a subscription.
If we take this whole bailout, slash, stimulus scheme a little further, there are some other, formerly viable, industries that are in dire straits. I can think of a couple that were an important, and formative, part of the generation we have given the reins of power to. Obviously, the vinyl record industry, and the eight track tape industry are in deep doo-doo about now. Probably too big to fail, by 1960’s standards. Going back a little further, the oil lamp manufactures could probably have their association meeting in a phone booth. We better dump some of someone else’s money in this vital industry too. Pretty soon, steam locomotive manufacturers will team up with buggy whip manufacturers to form a powerful lobby with the express purpose of helping themselves to your wallet.
Nowhere in the constitution is this allowed, in fact it is expressly forbidden. We have the inalienable right to our lives, liberty and property, and bailing out the myrmidons that elected you, with the fruits of MY labor, is not one of them.
Bravo, Wayne. Outstanding post.
In order to educate our leaders, I’m taking donations for a lobby to help me re-open my churn making plant. One good bailout and I can have lonely widows churning to their hearts desire…
For a little more, I’ll spend a few years designing one for the space shuttle too.
Today I talked to a Russian immigrant that explained Pravda’s popularity. There was no toilet paper in the Soviet Union. If the environmentalists manage to ban toilet paper, there may yet be a use for some of our newspapers. A fitting end…
Wait a minute. First, if, as you say, the Fourth Estate is a critical, time-honored part of a free society, then why would we let it die out, unless some billionaire comes along, bails it out, and uses it for his own purposes? Second, are we suppose to assume that some Australian (Murdoch) has our country’s best interests at heart? For that matter, why would we take it on faith that any billionaire would insure that his own press would be objective? Third, I hear you saying you would be ok with it if Obama had, say, Berlusconi’s money, and bought his own network and did what he wanted with it. I don’t think so; you’d be frothing at the mouth, and rightfully so. It’s contradictory to say we need a free press, and then to say it’s ok if it does the bidding of one person as long as he has enough money (and, of course, the “right” political agenda).