From Creators.com
By David Sirota

Without a bailout, newspapers will lay off staff, fewer journalists will report important stories, there will be no Fourth-Estate check on state and corporate power, and the country will suffer. So goes the pro-democracy case for government and/or altruistic investors to save the newspaper industry with an infusion of cash.

Except, amid the debate about such a bailout, it seems government and investors are already subsidizing the industry with in-kind contributions of damning honesty. These outbursts of candor are so brazen and self-explanatory as to require almost zero reportorial resources for blockbuster scoops.

It started in January, when it seemed America would need enterprising journalists to find out whether President Obama’s Wall Street-connected economic team was focused on helping average Americans, or on protecting the super-wealthy speculator class.

Typically, newspapers have to go all Woodward and Bernstein to answer such questions of influence and loyalties. They have to circumvent diversionary press-secretary spin, dig up documents and ferret out leaks — and all of that takes money they increasingly do not have.

But then Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner came right out and said, “We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system.” As Bloomberg News correctly noted, the White House was open about its primary “goal of preserving the private banking system.” Motives admitted, objectives acknowledged, no expensive investigative reporting necessary.

Read more Bailout