Proposed Senate bill would close The New York Times

Sort of. The Newspaper Revitalization Act would be a newspaper bailout that would seek to

allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.

Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.

Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible.

Assuming that the ban on political endorsements extends to the Times' news stories as well, the paper would probably end up being under 3 pages daily.

The thought that we will now have a print version of PBS or NPR doesn't seem very encouraging either. Perhaps that is why the story doesn't mention the party affiliation of the bill's sponsor, Ben Cardin (MD).