As I pointed out here last week, the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) recently released 47-page document outlining "Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism" has been raising eyebrows in many different quarters. Even though it is just a "discussion draft" and the agency hasn't formally endorsed any of the recommendations in it yet, the sweeping scope and radical nature of many of the proposals in the document has already raised the blood pressure for many folks. It doesn't help that the document reads like the CliffsNotes for the recent media-takeover manifesto, The Death and Life of American Journalism, by the neo-Marxist media scholar Robert W. McChesney and Nation editor John Nichols. Their book is horrifying in its imperial ambitions since it invites the government become the High Lord and Protector of the Fourth Estate. [For an in-depth look at all of McChesney's disturbing views on these issues, see: "Free Press, Robert McChesney & the "Struggle" for Media."]

The FTC's seeming infatuation with McChesney's proposals has many rightly concerned about where exactly the Obama Administration's FTC (and FCC) may be taking us in the name of "saving journalism." In an editorial this week, Investors Business Daily worries that the feds are "Seizing The News Business" and wonders "why, as the administration contemplates a federal takeover of their business, [there is] such thundering silence" from journalists and media executive themselves. The good news, however, is that a recent survey found plenty of skepticism among news executives regading government subsidies and regulatory meddling in their business. According to this April survey by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism in association with the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), revealed that, "Fully 75% of all news executives surveyed--and 88% of newspaper executives--said they had 'serious reservations,' or the highest level of concern, about direct subsidies from the government." A smaller percentage (only 46%) had serious reservations about tax credits for news organizations, then again, only 13% said they "would welcome such funding" and just 6% said they were "enthusiastic" about it.

And now there's this new survey by Rasmussen Reports which finds that average Americans find some of the FTC's proposed recommendations pretty silly:

• 84% oppose a 5% tax on the purchase of consumer electronic items such as computers, I-pads and Kindles to help support newspapers and traditional journalism.
• 74% oppose a 3% tax on monthly cell phone bills to help support newspapers and traditional journalism.
• 76% oppose placing an additional tax on internet news sites to help support newspapers and traditional journalism.
• 71% oppose the government creating a taxpayer-funded program that would hire and pay young reporters to work for newspapers around the country.

Those are pretty lopsided numbers, but I don't find those results all that surprising. These FTC recommendations, which were pulled almost verbatim from the McChesney-Nichols media takeover manifesto, don't past the laugh test with most Americans. Seriously, next time you see someone whip out their smartphone, ask them if they'd be willing to pay a 5% tax on it to funnel money into an FCC- or FTC-led corporate welfare program for favored media entities. You won't find many takers.

The FTC still has time to right the ship, of course. It will be interesting to see if someone high up in the Obama Administration gets control of this situation before it gets completely out of hand. It's fairly clear from those surveys that their is little appetite among those within the news business or among its consumers for the sort of radical recommendations that the FTC sketched out it is "reinventing journalism" blueprint. Let's just hope the Obama Administration still listens to common sense and is ready to reject a media marketplace takeover.

Further Reading:

• FTC Draft Plan to "Save Journalism" Drawing Scrutiny; Raising Concern, by Adam Thierer, June 4, 2010


• PFF's Mega-Filing in the FCC's "Future of Media" Proceeding, by Adam Thierer & Berin Szoka, May 5, 2010


• The Wrong Way to Reinvent Media, Part 5: Media Bailouts & Welfare for Journalists, by Adam Thierer & Berin Szoka, April 30, 2010


• The Wrong Way to Reinvent Media, Part 3: Media Vouchers, by Adam Thierer & Berin Szoka, April 14, 2010


• Steve Forbes on Free Press & Coming "Chavez-Style Media Crackdown", by Adam Thierer, March 2010


• The Wrong Way to Reinvent Media, Part 1: Taxing Devices & Networks to Subsidize Media, by Adam Thierer & Berin Szoka, March 24, 2010


• summary of remarks at "Crisis in Journalism" event, by Adam Thierer, Feb. 2010


• We're from Government and We're Here to Help (Save Journalism) by Adam Thierer, March 6, 2010


• A "Public Option" for Media? The Free Press Plan to Put Journalists on the Public Dole, by Adam Thierer, Nov. 2009


• Public Option for Press Should Get the Red Pen, by Adam Thierer, The Daily Caller, Jan. 2010


• Free Press, Robert McChesney & the "Struggle" for Media, by Adam Thierer, Aug. 2009


• What the Media Reformistas Really Want, by Adam Thierer, Aug. 2008


• Socializing Media in Order to Save It, by Adam Thierer, City Journal, March 2009


• Obama Should Just Say No To Newspaper Bailouts, Adam Thierer, Sept. 2009


• The Dangers of Government-Subsidized News, by Adam Thierer, Oct. 2009