Should Congress bail out newspapers?

The Washington Post had an article yesterday that looked at how Congress might pass laws that would shore up the ailing newspaper business. Some of the possibilities discussed by the authors include "bring copyright into the age of the search engine", federalizing the "hot news" doctrine, and using tax laws to promote the press. The authors also say that "Unless Congress embarks on far-reaching change in public policy to maintain the viability of journalism as it evolves online, we will soon find ourselves with the remnants of a broken industry incapable of providing the knowledge necessary to manage life in a complex world. "