So it’s being reported that a bill completely targeted at shutting down one, and only one, newspaper has passed a preliminary vote in the Knesset. It’s aimed at stopping the Israel Hayom paper which is given away free just like the Metro newspaper that litters every Tube train in London and countless clones of the same ad-supported, free newspaper business model around the world.
This is how the bill works:
Member of Knesset Eitan Cabel (Labor) submitted a bill that targets Yisrael Hayom specifically. The proposed law legislates the four top newspapers by subscription, and mandates that the price of the newspaper with the lowest cost be no less than 70% of the next cheapest newspaper’s price. This would ensure that Yisrael Hayom could no longer be given out for free, and the bill does not affect any other newspaper.
The paper, which I find to be straight and fair and without the massive left wing bias of most of the rest of the Israeli media, is in the sights of some MK’s because they don’t like the coverage they receive.
The entire business reminds me of this from Atlas Shrugged:
He shrugged and reached for another canape. A businessman said uneasily, “What I asked you about, Professor, was what you thought about the Equalization of Opportunity Bill.”
“Oh, that?” said Dr. Pritchett. “But I believe I made it clear that I am in favor of it, because I am in favor of a free economy. A free economy cannot exist without competition. Therefore, men must be forced to compete. Therefore, we must control men in order to force them to be free.”
“But, look … isn’t that sort of a contradiction?”
“Not in the higher philosophical sense. You must learn to see beyond the static definitions of old-fashioned thinking. Nothing is static in the universe. Everything is fluid.”
Rand, Ayn (2005-04-21). Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition) (p. 132). Plume. Kindle Edition.
“That is a great social problem,” said Balph Eubank. He was described as the literary leader of the age, but had never written a book that sold more than three thousand copies. “Personally, I believe that an Equalization of Opportunity Bill applying to literature would be the solution.”
“Oh, do you approve of that Bill for industry? I’m not sure I know what to think of it.”
“Certainly, I approve of it. Our culture has sunk into a bog of materialism. Men have lost all spiritual values in their pursuit of material production and technological trickery. They’re too comfortable. They will return to a nobler life if we teach them to bear privations. So we ought to place a limit upon their material greed.”
Rand, Ayn (2005-04-21). Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition) (p. 133). Plume. Kindle Edition.
