Government Subsidies for Newspapers Circa 1943
Tom Bowers at NewsObserver.com thinks newspapers operating as nonprofits are a “slippery slope.” He says tax exemption is another name for a government subsidy. Which is like saying all road building is socialism. Technically correct, yes but just a little hyperbolic. He writes:
The legislation was introduced on May 4, 1943 by Sen. John Bankhead, an Alabama Democrat. The Bankhead bill’s purpose — to “provide for more effective use of idle currency” and encourage citizens to purchase War Bonds — was silent about subsidizing newspapers, but it directed the treasury secretary to spend from $25 million to $30 million annually, divided equally between weeklies and dailies, without consideration of selling effectiveness of individual newspapers.
Bankhead said the War Department was spending more than $2 million a year on Armed Forces recruitment advertising, but only 2 percent was going to weekly newspapers. He claimed that 45 weeklies and 17 dailies had gone out of business in 1941 and 507 weeklies and 88 dailies had folded in 1942.
In other words, his bill was a handout.
We’ll file this one under “similar but different.” This debate was over the government advertising in newspapers. The Bush Administration paid for news. Paid columnists and produced news segment, so Bowers citing this 1943 debate as precedent to be against tax-exempt newspapers is kind of thin. NPR is non-profit and they can hardly be called a tool of “governmental favors.”
The argument seems to be right out of a Norman Rockwell fantasy, “They did everything better back in the good ol’ days.” No they didn’t.
Previously on FBLA:
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online 
FishbowlLA Twitter feed loading...
