Key Points
- The Build Back Better bill has a $1.67 billion dollar handout for local news media.
- But some larger newsrooms, like USA Today, will benefit from the bill.
- There’s a conflict for newsrooms and reporters receiving money from the government.
Biden’s Build Back Better bill may not be the $3.5 trillion dollar spending spree his party originally envisioned, but it’s still a boondoggle; a $1.75 trillion dollar beast with considerable amounts of eyebrow-raising waste – including a very generous tax handout for “local media.” $1.67 billion over the next five years, to be exact. “The help would come in the form of a payroll tax credit for companies that employ eligible local journalists,” AP News reports.
Now, you think “local,” you think The Big Bend Sentinel, The Carmel Pine Cone, perhaps. Heck, even lower Michigan’s WBKB-TV might benefit from some Biden bucks. Strong local journalism can encourage political participation and community cohesion.
That’s not exactly what’s happening here.
“The measure would allow newspapers, digital news outlets and radio and television stations to claim a tax credit of $25,000 the first year and $15,000 the next four years for up to 1,500 journalists,” according to AP. 1,500 employees or less to qualify? That’s a bit beyond “local,” no?
Americans for Tax Reform points out that USA Today publisher, the Gannett corporation, could make out with close to $130 million dollars if the bill passes. Gannett’s market capitalization: $780 million. 2020 revenue: $3.4 billion. They are one of the nation’s largest newspaper chains.
Maribel Perez Wadsworth, who runs Gannett’s news division, was asked to comment on the incredibly generous handout. She called the credit a “good shot in the arm” but wouldn’t say how the cash would be used in her organization. Second-ranking GOP leader Steve Scalise has a theory about that – he shared it on Twitter.
“Make no mistake — this is Biden and Dems in Congress helping pay the reporters’ salaries who cover for them,” Scalise wrote. And he’s right – or wrong! The bigger point is this creates a massive conflict of interest in news organizations all over the country. Can a reporter whose job may have been saved by this handout earnestly attack the Biden administration ever again?
The intention may not be sinister. Saving local news media is an honorable pursuit. U.S. newsroom employment has fallen 26% since 2008. More specifically, newspaper newsroom employment fell 57% between 2008 and 2020, from roughly 71,000 jobs to about 31,000, according to Pew Research.
That’s a bloodbath.
But with most of America’s newsrooms on the take from Uncle Sam, will disclosures at the top of every article, next to every byline, before and after every commercial become the new normal? Or, more likely, does this all just get swept under the rug and forgotten in a week?
If we do, it’s to our own detriment.
