President Barack Obama said that he would be open to signing a bailout for the struggling to newspaper industry on Saturday.

“Journalistic integrity, you know, fact-based reporting, serious investigative reporting, how to retain those ethics in all these different new media and how to make sure that it’s paid for, is really a challenge,” the president said in an interview with the Toldeo Blade and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Saturday. “I haven’t seen detailed proposals yet, but I’ll be happy to look at them.”

The president may have remained vague, but he is most likely referring to Maryland Senator Ben Cardin’s proposed Newspaper Revitalization Act, which would allow newspapers to restructure as 501(c)3 organizations. The legislation would make advertising revenue — which fell almost 30 percent last quarter — tax exempt and make donations to the industry tax deductible.

President Obama’s comments represented a shift in the administration’s position back in May, as the Boston Globe tittered toward collapse. Addressing a question posed by CNN correspondent Ed Henry, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said:

“‘[President Obama] believes there has to be a strong free press.’ But he added that government aid ‘might be a bit of a tricky area to get into, given the differing roles’ of the executive branch and a press that’s suppose to keep its eye on it.”

Not every member of the administration toed this line. L.A. Times columnist Rosa Brooks used her farewell column, published just before she took a job with the Defense Department, to call for a media bailout back in April.

“We can bail out journalism, using tax dollars and granting licenses in ways that encourage robust and independent reporting and commentary,” she said.

But some question whether journalism could remain independent when it relies on government funds to preserve its very existence. Former Forbes editor Scott Reeves answers with an emphatic no:

“It’s hard to see how newspapers dependent on government tax breaks for their survival retain their independence. What happens to a non-profit newspaper’s endorsements during election season? Or investigative stories about members of Congress? Or even this week’s sex scandal?”

“Cardin’s bill could easily morph into industrial policy for the mass media, enabling the government — not the free market — to determine winners and losers. That would value political connections over minor details like, oh, the public’s need to know what’s going on.”

Mr. Reeves believes that the end of newspapers does not spell an end to the 4^th Estate. “The Internet,” he says, “allows everyone to aspire to be a press baron — and the multiplicity of outlets makes it impossible for anyone to become the next Hearst.”

The president may believe that a newspaper bailout is the only way to safeguard our democracy. But for journalists like Mr. Reeves, government watchdogs have already secured their position through the localized alternative (read: new media) press. Reason TV takes an even closer look into the practical implications of a news bailout: