Andrew Coyne: Even before first bailout dollar arrives, newspaper industry holds out its hand for more

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If anyone was under any illusion the bailout was intended to be a temporary or transitional measure, the report should dispel that

“Before long,” I gloomily predicted in November of last year, when the government first unveiled its plans to bail out the newspaper industry, “we will be back for more.”

And sure enough, their report supplies all the needed bureaucratic language — what the panel congratulates itself are “unambiguous and objective criteria.” They aren’t anything of the kind, of course. There’s no “objective” reason to restrict eligibility to publications that have been “in operation for at least 12 months,” or whose content is “at least 60 per cent” written, or that are “focused on matters of general interest.

It would be scandalous to support such odious agitprop out of public funds. And yet to exclude it – to involve the government in rewarding publications it approves of and punishing those it does not – would be the greater scandal. Mind you, as there is no requirement to make public which organizations applied for funding, or which were rejected, or on what grounds, there will be no way of knowing if they did. Worse would be the effect on those that did receive funding.

While the measures the government has proposed so far, notably the tax credit for journalists’ salaries, are “important” and “welcome,” the panel says, they are “far from offering a sufficient solution.” Rather, what is required are a raft of “other measures”: raising the maximum salary to which the tax credit would apply from $55,000 to $85,000, for example, or increasing the digital subscription tax credit from 15 per cent to 25 per cent.

 

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With Jerry at the trough. the chow will go fast...........

Get rid of print media

Andrew Coyne can’t resist a dig against RebelNewsOnline for justifiably pointing out that the mainstream media is scared of discussing radical Islam and excessive migration. It is no wonder media revenues are falling

Which only gives JustinTrudeau a greater edge with the media. cdnpoli TrudeauMustGo

acoyne

rexglacer Not a shocker

a travesty of democracy

Bribery by Trudeau. TrudeauMustGo

Agree with Coyne, seems like the Libs want to bailout a failing business, young people don't buy newspapers, looks like the boondoggle of the decade.

It is astounding that Canadians subsidize their Canadian news media companies. The news topics & tweets from these subsidized Canadian News media companies are biased. Way too much USA / Trump coverage and too little Canadian Content.

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