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Economy
Wash. gov OKs tax cut for newspapers
2009-05-13
Some of us are more equal than others ...
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Gov. Chris Gregoire has approved a tax break for the state's troubled newspaper industry. The new law gives newspaper printers and publishers a 40 percent cut in the state's main business tax. The discounted rate mirrors breaks given in years past to the Boeing Co. and the timber industry.
Except that Boeing and the timber industry provide useful jobs ...
Newspapers across the country have resorted to layoffs and other cost-cutting moves to deal with a wounded business model and a recession-fueled drop in advertising.
Why not just combine all the newspapers into one? We could name it 'Truth' and save a bundle on the government subsidies .. or not ...
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed its final edition earlier this year and was converted to an Internet-only publication with a much-reduced staff.
And it's doing so well in its new format ...
Posted by:Steve White

#10  Why not just combine all the newspapers into one? We could name it 'Truth'

But competition is the American Way! So we would want a second one. It could be named "News". But then some smart-ass or refugee from the fUSSR would snark that "In Truth there is no news and in News there is no truth".
Posted by: SteveS   2009-05-13 18:58  

#9  Next thing you know the newspapers will demand an earned income tax credit.
Posted by: Iblis   2009-05-13 17:52  

#8  The graphic is grossly distorted; there's some overlap.

In real life, there's NONE. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-05-13 15:36  

#7  Tax breaks for stagecoach manufacturers and blacksmiths! An important part of American culture is fast disappearing and we do nothing! NOTHING!!
Posted by: tu3031   2009-05-13 14:33  

#6  They'd never get away with that in Kaliphornia...not that our newspapers are any better than Washington's. But with the budget about $12 billion under water and their efforts to raise taxes for everybody else it just wouldn't fly. We already recalled one governor and we're just about ready to recall another.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2009-05-13 14:25  

#5  Pravda means 'truth' in Russian
Izvestiya means 'delivered messages, a.k.a., the news'

There was a whispered joke in Russia in the 80s that "there is not much news in truth and not much truth in the news"
Posted by: lord garth   2009-05-13 13:06  

#4  this may be pretty much a symbolic act

The newspapers in Washington State don't have much in the way of profits to tax.
Posted by: lord garth   2009-05-13 13:03  

#3  Democracy, the most beautiful and ephemeral of political systems.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-05-13 12:47  

#2  Separation of Media and State? Will the press ever bite the hand that's feeding them?
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC   2009-05-13 12:42  

#1  Boeing and Timber don't pretend to act as a check on government power. Bought-and-paid-for whores, now
Posted by: Frank G   2009-05-13 11:48  

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