Uh-Oh, Bloggers...The Senate's Talking About Us
 Thursday, May 7th, 2009  by Connie T.

We can't tell you how pleased we are that you've joined us, because truth be told there are over 70 million blogs out there to choose from. For information junkies, that's gold. For the newspaper industry...not so much.

Yesterday newspaper advocates appeared before the Senate in a Commerce subcommittee hearing to complain that bloggers, Google, Yahoo!, AOL and other news aggregators have parasitically sucked up revenue that newspaper publishers need.

Sen. John Kerry, thankfully, stuck up for "independent and diverse news media," calling it vital to society. But publishers are asking the government for a hand, and some people - including Sen. Ben Cardin - believe that newspapers should be able to get tax breaks like the nonprofit's do. Others suggested, in addition to reduced taxing, antitrust protection so that newspapers can group together to receive more revenue online.

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post, who attended the three hour hearing, said that "The future is to be found elsewhere. It is search engines. It is online advertising. It is citizen journalism." Kerry agreed, saying "newspapers look like an endangered species."

Is it so bad that we're moving towards more paperlessness? Should the government be responsible for helping publishers transition themselves better into digital media? If you ask us, the MSM and the government are a little too chummy as it is.

Do you feel strongly about this issue? Contact the members of the Senate's Subcommittee on Commerce here and tell them what you think should happen.

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