ObamaNews! Statism's Next Step

The State owns GM and Chrysler and controls umpty-dozen Banks. In the near future, barring repeal of ObamaCare, the State will own the healthcare business, too.

Next up: the Press.

Bureaucrats at the Federal Trade Commission have just released a new "staff study" containing a host of recommendations on how the federal government can put itself at the center of the "reinvention of journalism" campaign now gathering momentum on the Left.

Translated, "reinvention of journalism" is codespeak for "Repeal the First Amendment's prohibition on Congress doing anything to abridge the freedom of the independent press...

Tapscott quotes another analyst on the FTC's paper.

"Of course, anything coming out of the Obama administration is also automatically about taxes. This working paper mentions some form of the word 'tax' 95 times in 47 pages. If government wants to make the media dependent on it for cash, it has to tax us to do so.

"The paper listed five possible new taxes to pay for a 'Citizenship Media Fund.' Those include a $4 billion tax on consumer electronics like your TV or iPod; a $5-6 billion advertising tax; and a tax on both ISP and cell phone bills. --Dan Gainor, Media Research Center

Granted, the MSM has served as ObamaNews for quite some time and the FTC proposal merely makes it legal, in the quaint phrasing.

And YOU can pay for it, thankyouverymuch!

Regardless of whether this proposal actually goes into effect, it is another clear indicator that we have a Statist (and most likely, a Marxist) in the Oval Office.

For the time being.