Bailout for corporate media tucked in spending bill

FPI / October 5, 2021

Big Media has mostly failed to mention that part of Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion spending package includes a $1.3 billion bailout for media organizations.

Your tax dollars handed out to propagandists to press for more government. Is that what the founders had in mind with First Amendment provisions for Freedom of the Press?

In a commentary published Wednesday in The Daily Signal, Adam Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media, noted the special journalism "tax credit" is equal to 50 percent of the salary of each journalist — up to $50,000 per journalist annually.

"Think of it as a way to turn every news outlet in America into a version of NPR," Guillette wrote.

Chris Jacobs, founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, noted in a Sept. 29 op-ed for The Federalist: "This tax credit program represents but the latest attempt from Democrats seeking to dominate the news media. From the Obama administration encouraging people to snitch on their neighbors for spreading 'disinformation' during the Obamacare debate, to congressional lawmakers seeking additional censorship by Big Tech giants, the Left wants to ensure that all media promote one message, and one message only: more government everywhere."

Team Biden's Big Media bailout would leverage the "ambiguities in the law to silence critical voices in the media," Jacobs wrote. "With the Treasury Department left to make critical decisions about how to interpret this proposal — decisions that could make or break the future of news publications — how likely do you think the average reporter, or publisher, would be to cover that same Treasury Department aggressively on an issue like Biden’s taxes, and whether the IRS will audit his questionable returns? The question practically answers itself, and speaks to the pernicious effects of this type of proposal."

Republicans "should expose this crony capitalism by asking JCT just how many establishments, and how many reporters, would receive this new federal bailout," Jacobs added. "And when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asks rhetorically what programs people seeking a smaller spending bill would cut, conservatives should point to this example of crass political corruption as Exhibit A."
 

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The idea of "saving" the media would, in actuality, "destroy the media," Guillette noted. "How could we ever trust journalists to accurately cover the elected officials who voted against their funding? How can you 'speak truth to power' when you’re also pleading with that power for cash? Which news outlets would get the funding, and which would be snubbed?"

Guillette continued: "Any pretense of objectivity would be destroyed once the media is on the federal payroll.

"And if you think the media is already hostile to conservatives, libertarians, Christians, business leaders, southerners, and basically anyone who didn’t love Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s dress from the Met Gala, just imagine the disdain they’ll show us once they’re funded by tax dollars. Also imagine the press coverage of any politician that dares to oppose renewing — or increasing — their funding."

Free Press International