OPINION:
Another canary in the coal mine from the Empire State: New York’s newly minted state budget allocates $90 million for tax credits for so-called local news outlets. Eligible outlets can receive a tax credit against half of the first $50,000 of a journalist’s salary. It’s welfare, tailor-made for the Fourth Estate.
The collapse of local, community-based newspapers and other media outlets focusing on Americans’ backyards has been an unfortunate consequence of the digital age. Smaller, local outlets have been devastated by shifts in the industry and information consumption habits, as well as plummeting subscriptions and advertising revenue.
A Northwestern University study released last November estimated the United States has lost one-third of its newspapers and two-thirds of its newspaper journalism jobs since 2005.
Corporate welfare won’t change that dynamic. What it will do is advance the death of journalistic independence at the hands of left-wing Democrats who seek to control the public discourse at every turn.
Russian television, here we come.
Axios attempted to quell any fears about New York’s program, throwing gasoline on the liberal bias dumpster fire: “The first-of-its kind provision could create a blueprint for funding local journalism jobs across the country. Tax credits, unlike government-funded grants, are seen by some as less likely to create a dynamic where a local news outlet feels compromised by government-funded support.”
Really? Does anyone really think that a subsidized paper would be as aggressive in countering runaway taxation, spending, radical social engineering, assaults on local zoning, sanctuary status, cash payouts to illegals, “woke” education, tyrannical public unions, soft-on-crime district attorneys, and others of the most controversial policies pushed by states like New York could all get even more of a pass?
This isn’t about fostering a more balanced discourse, job creation, or local news reporting. Leftists aren’t interested in increased coverage at the local level. They are interested in increased favorable coverage for their agenda and candidates.
It’s not about helping the little guy, either. Provisions in the bill extend the benefits for outlets that have more than 100 employees and had major layoffs in the last five years. The legislation, inserted into the $237 billion state budget, is so vague in its definition of “local” that even some of the state’s marquee publications could qualify.
The New York Daily News, the liberal tabloid competitor to the New York Post, laid off more than 100 employees recently as it continues to struggle. Long Island’s Newsday, another liberal outlet, also bills itself as a local paper that could potentially get a lifeline from the state.
The new law allows papers to qualify for government assistance even if they have only one journalist focused on local reporting.
It will likely be a loser for taxpayers, too.
Right now, New York subsidizes high-tech manufacturing, wind farms, etc., due to the state’s highest combined tax burden in the nation, which is about $8 billion annually. According to the Empire Center for Public Policy, a recent analysis showed that New York state taxpayers lost about 49 cents for every dollar in film credits.
Unlike subsidizing a chip fabrication plant or wind farm, the politicians won’t be able to tout big job numbers and receipts from media welfare.
When you’re guaranteed millions in taxpayer money or some form of government assistance, like NPR, you become an appendage of the state. NPR has been subsidized by taxpayers for decades, and the ideological drift has been dramatic, as former editor Uri Berliner courageously articulated recently.
Welfare ensnaring people into a trap that makes them beholden to Democrats is a tried-and-true tactic of the left. It will work with media outlets as well.
There is already a lack of viewpoint diversity in much of the American media, just as there is a lack of intellectual diversity in higher education. A recent study by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications revealed that only 3.4% of journalists identify as Republicans.
In 2022, a Pew Research study showed that less than one-third of journalists believed there was sufficient political diversity in their newsrooms. Thirty-four percent were “unsure” about the issue or, in other words, refused to answer.
At a time when newsrooms are calibrated to support left-wing ideology and George Soros is buying up radio stations, Americans should consider state-subsidized media a new front in the battle for the independent, honest political discourse that is critical to free society.
California, New Mexico, New Jersey and the District of Columbia have all passed some welfare measures for journalists. Still, nothing comes close to the $90 million figure in the Empire State’s budget. A wider effort in blue states to amplify left-wing viewpoints through these payoffs isn’t far behind.
Our great national conversation must be free from the government coercion and interference we saw as the COVID-19 pandemic got underway. We’ve seen Democrats erode freedom of speech and religion. Now, they’re threatening true press freedom by blurring the lines between the government and the media through direct payoffs.
Today, Democrats in New York are at the vanguard of formalizing a symbiotic relationship that would leave Americans a media with only a patina of independence from the state. What follows is propaganda and manipulation that affronts journalism and democracy.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax TV and is a Washington Times columnist.
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