Obama on C-SPAN: We're Out of Money

Here is a text of an interview President Barack Obama gave to C-SPAN host Steve Scully as reported on Drudge:

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we've seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we've got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it's putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don't reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can't get control of the deficit.

So, one option is just to do nothing. We say, well, it's too expensive for us to make some short-term investments in health care. We can't afford it. We've got this big deficit. Let's just keep the health care system that we've got now.

Along that trajectory, we will see health care cost as an overall share of our federal spending grow and grow and grow and grow until essentially it consumes everything...

SCULLY: When you see GM though as “Government Motors,” you're reaction?

OBAMA: Well, you know – look we are trying to help an auto industry that is going through a combination of bad decision making over many years and an unprecedented crisis or at least a crisis we haven't seen since the 1930's. And you know the economy is going to bounce back and we want to get out of the business of helping auto companies as quickly as we can. I have got more enough to do without that. In the same way that I want to get out of the business of helping banks, but we have to make some strategic decisions about strategic industries...

SCULLY: States like California in desperate financial situation, will you be forced to bail out the states?

OBAMA: No. I think that what you're seeing in states is that anytime you got a severe recession like this, as I said before, their demands on services are higher. So, they are sending more money out. At the same time, they're bringing less tax revenue in. And that's a painful adjustment, what we're going end up seeing is lot of states making very difficult choices there...

SCULLY: William Howard Taft served on the court after his presidency, would you have any interest in being on the Supreme Court?

OBAMA: You know, I am not sure that I could get through Senate confirmation...

Pew Study: Classified Revenue Losing Ground Fast to Online Advertising

Newspaper classified revenue has dropped about 50 percent since 2000 while the number of online adults who have used online classifieds has more than doubled in the past four years, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project survey found.

The April survey reports that 49 percent of Internet users say they have used online classified sites, compared with 22 percent of online adults who had done so in 2005.

Annual revenue for newspapers from classified advertising in 2000 was more than $19.608 billion, but in 2008 it was $9.975 billion, the study found. That represents a 49 percent drop, as represented by the Pew chart above.

The survey also said that on any given day about a tenth of Internet users visit online classified sites, up from 4 percent in 2005.

This data should make all publishers concerned. It may be that Google isn't the only culprit in the demise of print newspapers after all. Classified advertising has long been the lifeblood of print newspapers. The ideas of restricting newspaper website to subscribers could be a short-term fix. But if it classified revenue continues to dwindle, and there's nothing to suggest the bleeding will stop any time soon, it will be tough for newspapers to survive in any form.

Roxana Saberi's Arrival on U.S. Soil

Finally, jailed American journalist Roxana Saberi has arrived in the United States.

Roxana Saberi Leaves Vienna for the United States

American journalist Roxana Saberi, who spent four months in an Iranian prison, is on her way to the United States.

Robert Hugins, public affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Austria, told The Associated Press that Saberi left Vienna this morning on a flight bound for Washington, D.C.

The 32-year-old journalist, who moved to Iran six years ago, was arrested in late January and convicted of spying in a closed-door trial that her Iranian-born father said lasted only 15 minutes.

She was freed on May 11 and spent a week in Austria recuperating. Hugins said Roxana is traveling with her parents and a family friend.

No. 1 News Site? MSNBC.COM Once Again With 40 Million Unique Visitors in April

Editor & Publisher released its monthly list of top news websites today and once again MSNBC.com is on top with more than 40 million unique visitors in April.

MSNBC.com's numbers represented a 24 percent increase over its numbers in the same period last year, according to Nielsen Online.

Meanwhile, NYTimes.com, slipped from the top 5 to sixth by registering 16.5 million unique. a decline from last April of 8 percent. The New York Times is disputing the Nielsen numbers, noting its own internal data show an upward trend in viewership.

Here are the top 30 news websites with their April unique visitors and percent change, according to the survey.

MSNBC Digital Network -- 40,098,000 -- 24%
Yahoo! News -- 39,198,000 -- 14%
CNN Digital Network -- 37,225,000 -- 11%
AOL News -- 23,388,000 -- 1%
Fox News Digital Network -- 18,110,000 -- 67%

NYTimes.com -- 16,546,000 -- (-8%)
Tribune Newspapers -- 15,663,000 -- 16%
Google News -- 12,933,000 -- 20%
Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division -- 12,520,000 -- (-5%)
USATODAY.com -- 11,987,000 -- 12%

ABCNEWS Digital Network -- 11,577,000 -- (-8%)
CBS News Digital Network -- 10,790,000 -- 9%
washingtonpost.com -- 10,232,000 -- 8%
McClatchy Newspaper Network -- 9,675,000 -- 15%
BBC -- 9,060,000 -- 63%

TheHuffingtonPost.com -- 8,885,000 -- 157%
WorldNow -- 8,820,000 -- 14%
NBC Local Media -- 8,720,000 -- N/A
Advance Internet -- 7,845,000 -- 30%
Hearst Newspapers Digital -- 7,245,000 -- (-6%)

Topix -- 6,597,000 -- 8%
MediaNews Group Newspapers -- 6,448,000 -- 0%
Boston.com -- 5,888,000 -- 33%
Cox Newspapers -- 5,705,000 -- (-1%)
MailOnline -- 5,160,000 -- 70%

Daily News Online Edition -- 5,033,000 -- 73%
The Slate Group Websites -- 4,418,000 -- N/A
New York Post Holdings -- 4,403,000 -- 27%
NPR -- 4,325,000 -- 1%
Belo Television -- 4,200,000 -- (-7%)

News Cycle had a good April as well, seeing an increase in unique visitors of 35.8 percent over its March figures, according to Google Analytics. Comparisons to the previous year are not possible as the site was launched in August.

AP Offers Several Hunderd Buyouts, But Keeps It a Secret

The Associated Press is offering buyouts and increased pension benefits to hundreds of its veteran employees, but refuses to make a public statement or file a report on the action.

The buyouts, which according to a report today by Joe Strupp of Editor & Publisher, offers $500 for each year of service, were not publicized and were only made public through a posting on the guild’s website.

According to the site:

In an effort to reduce its worldwide labor costs by 10 percent, The Associated Press is offering employees based in the United States and ex-pats 55 and older an enhanced retirement benefit that will increase employee pensions by 14 to 16 percent.

Ex-pats are overseas employees who were hired in the United States and transferred overseas.

The company said it will offer the benefit elsewhere, if legally permissible. Some countries have labor regulations that may prohibit the company from making the offer.

Employees have to be actively employed or have retired between Jan. 1 and May 1, 2009 to be eligible. In addition to being 55, at least 10 years of service is required. Age and years of service must total at least 75.

AP said there are 263 employees in the Guild unit who are eligible to apply, according to the Guild. There are about 100 in the administrative group. The number of eligible employees in the ex-pats group is unknown. In the Guild Unit, 49 employees are 65 or older, 94 are 60 to 64 years of age and 120 are 55 to 59.