The state of the conservative movement is such that Soros can take over some of the largest radio networks in the country and Dems can begin building a massive taxpayer-subsidized media in plain sight, yet stories on these subjects will get a fraction of the attention of the latest influencer feuds and assorted nonsense.
In April, I wrote about what was happening in New York.
The state budget, set to be finalized Saturday, includes the nation’s first payroll tax credit for local news organizations in a bid to encourage new hiring amid the ongoing struggles of journalism outlets to cover their communities.
The late addition to the $237 billion budget allows eligible outlets to receive a 50 percent refundable credit for the first $50,000 of a journalist’s salary, up to a total of $300,000 per outlet.
This is fairly mild compared to what’s coming out of California.
A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would levy a “data extraction mitigation fee” on companies such as Google and Meta in order to provide media outlets in the state with a tax credit meant to pay for more journalists. Senate Bill 1327, by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Contra Costa, would raise around $500 million annually to be split among California news outlets, depending on their size and whether they offer employee health and retirement benefits.
Facebook and Google obviously won’t be paying it, you will. The Big Tech firms will just charge advertisers more and they’ll raise their prices.
But where the money is coming from matters less than where it’s going.
Faced with an economic apocalypse in the media, especially local media, Dems are working to turn the whole enterprise into one big taxpayer-subsidized monstrosity. And they’re doing it while Republicans are sleeping or playing along.
I’ve been writing about this for nearly a decade and despite the fact that the transformation of the media into nonprofits is a game changer, there’s very little interest in the subject. And there’ll be very little interest in it until it’s far enough along that there’s nothing left to do but complain about it.
The media will become a taxpayer-subsidized state propaganda enterprise.
