Isn't California broke? Didn't Governor Gavin "A Little Dab'll Do Ya" Newsom take California from a big budget surplus to a $20 billion deficit?
Apparently not, because the California legislature is shelling out $10 million to set up a government-monitored media subsidy program. What could possibly go wrong?
The California Legislature passed a bill to provide $10 million in state funding for a governor-overseen news media subsidy program that media leaders say will erode the incentive for news organizations to hold the government accountable for its actions.
The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for approval.
“This new office undermines the very independence of local media,” said state Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, in a statement to The Center Square. “Just like the Washington Post doesn’t run negative stories about Jeff Bezos — because he owns and funds it — Governor Newsom and the Legislature are creating the same conflict of interest with this new fund.”
Bingo.
Look, this is just one short step away from a government-sponsored media outlet. Why not go all the way California? Just go full Soviet, set up an official state media network. I think the name "Pravda" is available.
Of course, you'll have to ban all other media, broadcast, cable, and online, for it to be effective. As we have learned from PBS and NPR, if government-sponsored media have to compete with regular commercial media, they have a hard time drawing an audience that tips into three digits.
Kind of like "The View."
But wait! There's more!
In an Assembly hearing on the bill, AB 155, Tangipa asked state staff about the program and its governance.
“It will establish a program in the governor’s office of business and economic development to support local journalism,” responded Justin Adelman, assistant budget program manager at the California Department of Finance. “The program will have nine members on a board who will advise the director of the governor’s office of business and economic development to distribute those funds.”
When asked by Tangipa about the board’s composition, Adelman noted the advisory board would be appointed by the governor-appointed director of business and economic development.
An "advisory board." I can just picture that response being delivered with an exaggerated wink.
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When I was in the Army, there were some things that the brass couldn't technically order you to do, but which the brass wanted you to do. These included social events, like an annual battalion "Dining-In." (I always attended those, because they were fun.) Those events were "highly recommended." Not ordered - recommended, usually a recommendation which was accompanied by a gimlet eye from the colonel.
That, I suspect, is how any "advice" from this "advisory board" will be delivered. Probably with a qualifier, along the lines of "Nice media outlet you've got here. Yes, very nice. Be a shame if anything... happened to it."
The leftist California legislature has done some dumb things. But this is one of the dumbest of dumb things the dumb people in this dumb state legislature have done in a long time. I know there are plenty of good, solid conservative and, yes, moderate people in California who are working and voting to turn this state around. Some of them are friends and colleagues of mine. It looks to me like they have a long, uphill climb ahead - but dumb ideas like this place another arrow in their quiver, so maybe it's not altogether a bad thing.
Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about corrupt politicians like California's Governor Gavin "A Little Dab'll Do Ya" Newsom.
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