Democratic senator Benjamin Cardin released a bill yesterday, the "Newspaper Revitalization Act," that would help newspapers survive by allowing them to restructure as nonprofits and receive various tax breaks, reports Reuters. Blog reaction has been overwhelmingly negative. Techdirt points out some of the problems: "To qualify for the program, a paper would no longer be allowed publish editorial endorsements....Second, to be successful, the papers would be heavily dependent on donations, which could raise questions about objectivity. But the biggest problem with this approach is that it simply props up a failing business model, rather than forcing the newspapers to adjust to the new realities of the marketplace." True North describing the bill as "nanny state protections" and The Corner says "a press that depends on a special designation from the government for its economic livelihood isn't really a 'free' press any more, now is it?" "A lot of people rely on daily newspapers for their endorsements, particularly in down-ticket races," says Slog, "and banning them from daily newspapers will just further empower the political blogs that are eating them alive."