Newspaper bailouts: beyond parody

So, we have this neat new thing called the Internet that provides up-to-the-minute free expression throughout the world, effectively making traditional ink-on-paper methods for getting your news more than outdated unless, y'know, a monitor hurts your eyes or you can't work your way around a URL.

The best webcomics are now better than the best newspaper comics, blog insight often penetrates deeper than mainstream media analysis, and "web publishers" can post as often as they like the very moment they have something fit for publication.

Now that we know our history, it's pretty much the definition of futility that a few isolated voices have proposed what amounts to a bailout of the newspaper industry. I know it's often a habit for Internet journalists (of which I am not, not really) to blow things out of proportion and rant at length, so I'll make one thing clear: most people aren't this stupid. The article says that much (though most of the people quoted have the wrong reason for not supporting a bailout). But some people are that stupid.