On Bailing Out Newspapers, Part 2

So I went on NPR today and again made the argument for letting newspapers die rather than bailing them out. The link takes you to a transcript of the piece, and a recording. My take is that the idea of a bailout is a) bad, and b) possibly even dangerous. Bad because there's no sense propping up a broken business model, and dangerous because newspapers should not be coming to depend on friendly politicians to keep them alive. This raises yet another logical flaw in the bailout talk -- the people who are for it like to say that newspapers are so vital to democracy. But to play that role, newspapers need to be independent. They need to answer to no one but their readers. Getting in bed with the government is the worst thing they can do.