In Pennsylvania the governor is groping for a $720 million “excess profit” tax on oil companies in order to fund mass transit.
This prompts an interesting comment from Philly Daily News writer Will Bunch at his blog.
“I’ll tell you who should be lobbying like crazy for mass transit — and that’s America’s beleagured newspapers. In a world with so many barriers to newspaper reading, the one place where the habit still makes sense is on a train or a bus. I know we ‘support’ mass transit, but I’m talking about a much more aggressive approach,” Bunch says.
If by “much more aggressive” Bunch means constantly tilting newspaper coverage to favor mass transit, ignore standing questions about transit financing, and attacking the motives of anyone who questions the transit status quo, Charlotte is way ahead of the curve.
And is Bunch remotely serious — that taxpayers should spend billions of dollars so that commuters will be forced to look at newspaper ads? So Bunch and company can keep their jobs? That newspapers are just one step removed from being complete welfare queens?
Is this entitlement view wide-spread in the newsie world or just limited to highly unionized, feather-bed comfortable places like Philly? Most of all, has this argument ever popped into the heads of anyone at the Uptown paper of record?
“We can’t criticize CATS. Without the trains and 328 buses, who will read our paper?”
I must admit that thought never crossed my mind. I had just always assumed that Charlotte would never get consistent and accurate reporting on CATS so long as a statue of Rolfe Neill stands watch over the South Line.
