Whose Ox is being Gored

Imagine this made up news story:

Representatives from the communications giant Salem Communications which is the broadcast home of such hosts as Mchael Medved, Dennis Prager, and Mike Gallegher today said they believe the Justice department should change its anti trust procedures so they could work with other companies to find solutions to their financial woes. Senator John McCain has an alternative idea where they could book losses against the previous five years when they were more profitable.

This is of course a made up story, but the outline was taken from an actual Reuters story dated June 3 about the big publishers of newspapers which are of course facing the threat of going under. I encourage people to read this story. The point I am making is that while this story is highlighting that the publishers don't want to be given an auto industry style bailout because it could hurt their perceived objectivity, but do want some help from the feds to help them survive. If the same point were made by another industry that has real or perceived ties to conservatives and the Republican Party it would by definition be reported as a case of special interests asking for special treatment.

This subject of the newspapers is real and in my humble estimation it is a question of arrogance. The biggies in this field believe that only they can do the job of journalism. Some newspapers have gone out of business and some more are on the brink. The market has shown that we don't need as many newspaper outlets as we have. As long as the firm going out is from a small town it is believed that it is OK to have the market rule. Let it happen to a large market and I might add a large blue state market and it is a matter of dire emergency that the nanny state must act on. Are we to assume that all journalism will stop if the New York Times goes out of business? How about the Washington Post? This is rediculous!

Did transit stop when the street car companies went out of business? Did telephone traffic stop when the telephone operators went by the wayside? The entire argument is laughable. Would we bend anit-trust legislation for an oil company? How about for a software company? I argue that this new bailout industry stems not from size but from who their friends are. I argue that if GM were largely a non-union company today they would still be in bankruptcy, but if no lenders were to be found, they would soon be liquidating.

I have written before about defining what special interests are and I will continue to write about it because it is a subject we must face honestly. To me a special interest is a industry or business that disagrees with the speaker or writer calling it a special interest. A healthy political environment cannot allow this spoils system to continue. This is an out growth of the group politics which was not invented by President Obama but played so skillfully buy President Obama.

As for the newspapers, let the market shake it out and let the chips fall where they may. If anti trust procedures are to be changed I say good. Anti trust has been a giant club to be employed any time the given Justice Department feels like using it. If procedures are to change however let it be for the public good and not because a liberal interest group came knocking with the threat of writing unflattering stories about the Attorney General.