That's not what this is. Market forces will sort this mess out. There are external initiatives under way, but it will take time to transition. Until that happens, something has to be done to keep them afloat if they are meant to survive. Look at it this way, the news industry has been turned upside down since the Internet came to be. It's been like a polar shift. Now people go to Google to search for news, and the old-media models don't survive because the old revenue flows right through. Google benefits from keeping them alive -- sure it could do nothing and let them die, but that would be like killing the host -- an environmental disaster and PR catastrophe -- if all the sources went away there would be no more news for people to google. And no one wins in that scenario.

Unless humanity is certain that's what it wants to happen, it's probably prudent to save this potentially critical leg from decay. Google has the means and if it's in everyone's interest for the greater good, this is a way to keep one of its leg from falling off until market forces have time to sort the mess out, something new emerges, and everyone has time to transition. In the old days, the government would supply the subsidy to buy the time to transition, but now market forces have aligned. Private industry has evolved and has the means -- it's willing and able. Maybe this is how a healthy, well-functioning system is supposed to work. Maybe this is a glimpse of capitalism at its finest. Maybe it's progress, maybe it's not.

Who knows how this will play out? It's uncharted territory. A new chapter in the American experiment. Whatever happens, we will see.