I’ve been referring to the MSM as Obama’s State Run Media™ for a while now, mostly just for rhetorical affect. But it looks like it might literally come to pass, as Obama is hinting that he might be up for handing out taxpayer dollars to buy even more sugar-coated coverage from the already-too-compliant media.

What could possibly be wrong with nationalizing the newspaper industry?

Via HotAir:

But now Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD, 100%) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD, 95%) have proposed a solution to this catastrophic turn of events: These newspapers will henceforth become nonprofit organizations… and will be bailed out via “tax deals.” This sounds oddly like a government subsidy.

Freed from the demand that they actually turn a profit, or even retain readership, they can now utterly wallow, like swamp hogs, in the foetid morass of New Left and liberal advocacy. They will no longer be in danger of sinking into the quicksand; the government will keep bailing them out, so long as they continue suckling at Barack H. Obama’s breast.

What a cozy, madonna-and-holy-infant relationship.

At last, the only major national newspapers we shall have in future will be directly controlled by the federal government, and wholly dependent upon the president for their subsistence and continued existence — like in Oogo Chavez’s Venezuela. No more of this unpatriotic carping and racist demagoguing of the mitzvahs sloughed off by the Obamacle; the president and the Democrats in Congress will speak ex cathedra, and the church organs will pipe and print the holy writ. We’ll finally have all of our drunks in a row.

What could go wrong?

That’s what I asked, too.

Riehl World View adds:

Gee, why would Obama consider a bill of this type? It isn’t as if he and the Dems don’t already own the folks he’d be bailing out. If Obama thinks he’s going to take our tax dollars to re-distribute to the Pinch Sulzberger’s of the world, he needs to hear forcefully from the American people that the day of the bail-out has passed.

We need to reverse this trend of government co-opting the private sector, and not give them anymore reach into established media than they already enjoy. When it comes to bailing out newspapers, the Right and Republicans have to be prepared to go to the mat

And Scared Monkeys:

The bailouts and the stimulus package have been nothing but Obama paying back his cronies Obama_one_big_ass_mistake for their political support. Now comes word that Obama will look to do the same with you tax dollars and bail out newspapers.