43% Say "Let Newspapers Fail"

Rasmussen has done a survey on public attitudes toward the financial crisis in the newspaper industry:

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Americans favor federal government subsidies to keep newspapers in business, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Forty-three percent (43%) say it’s better to let the papers go out of business, and 20% are not sure what to do.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of Americans believe some newspapers are too important to fail. Fifty percent (50%) reject this idea.

Fifty-one percent (51%) oppose a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate last week that would let newspapers become tax-exempt non-profit organizations as long as they don’t endorse political candidates. Thirty-three percent (33%) support the measure proposed by Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland.

But 53% agree with Cardin that losing the newspaper industry is “a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy,” while 31% disagree.

I don't take a newspaper anymore. If I want to check the local paper I just look it up online for free.

And there are no papers too important to fail. The biggest names in the newspaper business in the country are almost completely left wing. We can live without them.