From newswires:
The U.S. Treasury has granted a $600,000 one-time gift to San Francisco’s Asian Week in a dramatic new extension of the federal bailout program intended to help failing media organizations.
“We are starting with a struggling low-profit, family and community based ethnic media outlet like AsianWeek because of its important role to our American life,” said Winston Gee, the newly appointed official of the Troubled Asset Relief Program for Ethnic Media (TARPEM). “AsianWeek is the ‘Voice of Asian America” after all. If we’re going to guarantee old GM cars, we certainly can guarantee Americans a printed form of AsianWeek on their doorstep or news rack.”
AsianWeek publisher Ted Fang said the paper would use the funds to gear up the re-start of the printed edition. And he assured the bulk of the bailout would not be used as bonuses to the likes of its star columnist Emil Guillermo ( who blogs at www.amok.com).
“That is so AIG and we are so APA,” said Fang. “We will be responsible and are honored to have the government realize that beyond saving financial institutions, saving failing institutions of the First Amendment should be a vital part of any economic bailout in this country.”
Gee said the idea came up when the Troubled Asset Relief Program gave $600,000 to Butler Point Bank of Caitlin, Illinois on March 13.
“Someone over late night pizza in the TARP war room suggested there were more Asian Americans served by AsianWeek than Butler Point Bank,” said Gee. “One thing led to another, and we all figured AsianWeek deserved at least $600,000 for the number of people it served. Instead of making the Fangs start a bank, we decided to make this a special First Amendment award, of sorts. The clear intent is to send newsprint back out into the streets teeming with important community information.”
Gee said that the papers early endorsement of Obama had nothing to do with this treatment. But he mentioned that some of Guillermo’s biting columns about Obama had raised some eyebrows at the oval office. AsianWeek’s last printing was in January.
“We were also hearing from people in Congress who stopped seeing it come in the mail,” said Gee. “They didn’t want to read it online.”
Gee said that other media organizations that were more corporate, like the Tribune group, or the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle, could be in line for First Amendment bailout funds. But he added that closely held family owned ethnic papers had a better chance to get those funds.
“The Chronicle can easily become a bank that loses $50 million a year, then it can apply for TARP funds under the normal procedures,” Gee said.