Newspapers don't need a bailout

Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. President.

We taxpayers -- not some detached federal government -- have bailed out banks, Wall Street, the auto industry and the housing market. Now President Obama says he is receptive to a bill that would bail out the newspaper industry.

The newspaper industry is in turmoil today because of two simple reasons.

First, the national economy and the advent of additional outlets for news have combined to curtail spending on print advertising. That applies to urban centers and rural newspapers alike.

But more importantly, some newspapers forgot their primary purpose and ignored their readers. With ample arrogance, these newspapers believed they knew better what their readers wanted. They began slowly blurring the line between news and editorial opinion.

The result has been a dismantling of many traditional newspapers.

But the last thing this nation and the newspaper industry need is federal government intervention.

After 40-plus years in this business, I learn something new every day. The explosion of technology has forced changes within the newspaper industry that I never imagined. And we newspaper folk are a fickle lot. Afraid that we will be passed by, we swarm to the latest gadget that will deliver news faster and in more ways than the next guy. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not so much.

If newspapers are failing, it's their own damned fault. Top heavy in management, obsessed with gadgetry over news content and ignorant of what readers want, newspapers are their own worst enemy.

As a nation, we must abandon this asinine notion that the federal government will come to the rescue in each and every instance. We must always remember that when we say "federal government" we are actually talking about the hard-earned money of some worker.

It reminds me of that silly television commercial about the scooter for the elderly where the woman proudly looks into the camera and says the scooter didn't cost a penny. Well, lady, somebody paid for the darned thing. It was a taxpayer providing the resources to fund Medicare that will eventually pay for your scooter. Don't pretend that it didn't cost a penny, because it most certainly did.

I paid for your stupid scooter!

Mr. President, if you remain hell-bent to throw our tax dollars around, try expanding funding for veterans' benefits. These are the men and women who provided the freedom you enjoy to spend my money. Try sincerely helping small businesses, since these are the people who work and send their money your way.

But don't worry about the newspaper industry.

Those quality news organizations who do their job day in and day out will weather this storm without your help. If your friendly Washington Post and New York Times are having troubles, they need to look into a mirror and not in your direction for help.