US President Barack Obama is worried about the state of US journalism and will consider tax breaks for newspapers that restructure as non-profit businesses, according to a report on Times Live.
He said he believes that good journalism is "critical to the health of our democracy".
"I am concerned that, if the direction of the news is all blogosphere – all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context – that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding," he said in an interview with editors.
Obama talked about the vital role of journalism and newspapers.
"How to retain [journalistic] ethics in all these different new media, and how to make sure that it's paid for, is really a challenge," Obama said. "But it's something I think is absolutely critical to the health of our democracy."
A Senate measure, one of several before Congress, would allow newspaper companies to restructure as non-profit organisations with a variety of tax breaks.
Obama, referring to such bills, said: "I haven't seen detailed proposals yet, but I'll be happy to look at them."
Click here to read the full report, posted on Timeslive.co.za.
