SOLO-International Press Release: Bailout Bolshevism-Now Newspapers Too?

December 5, 2008

The epidemic of Bailout Bolshevism sweeping the world will soon be impossible to parody, notes SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo.

"Journalist and commentator Michelle Malkin observes that some of her colleagues started writing tongue-in-cheek applications for federal funds for their newspapers some weeks back. 'But now,' she reports, 'in a rather unfunny turn, the newspaper bailout push has actually come to pass. The Republican governor and the Democratic attorney general of Connecticut went on the record last week in support of government intervention for failing local newspapers. God save us from bipartisanship. Their joint statements pushing a salvage program came in response to news that the New Britain Herald, the Bristol Press, and 11 weekly papers across the state face closure. About 100 jobs are at stake. This is bad news, no question. But cause for apocalyptic talk and expansive meddling by politicians? Please.'

"Well said, Ms. Malkin! And may your commentary cause Americans to pause and reflect upon the insanity that grips their country in particular! Who'll be next to go begging to Washington? Starbucks? McDonald's? Kentucky Fried? The struggling juice-bar or shoe-shine on the corner? It's especially ominous, though, when the purveyors of news and commentary deliberately set out to become beholden to politicians, when the Fourth Estate sets out to have itself shackled.

"The First Amendment says Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of the press. Congress won't need to when the press is dependent on it for funding.

"Any news organisation, struggling or thriving, with any self-respect, should resist the tide of Bailout Bolshevism. So should any other kind of enterprise in what was once the bastion of muscular capitalism. When will Americans wake up to the fact that all this government largesse, apart from being fraudulent, comes at the price of their freedom?"Perigo concludes.

ENDS

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