Nice editorial from the Wall Street Journal on the wacky proposition of a state bailout for Philadelphia’s struggling newspapers:

Taxpayer cash is going to rescue so many people these days that it is hard to sort the truly awful ideas from the merely terrible. Then we heard the doozy out of Pennsylvania, where Governor Ed Rendell has discussed a state bailout of the company that owns a pair of Philadelphia newspapers, the Inquirer and the Daily News.
Philadelphia Media Holdings is in default on its loans, having missed debt payments going back to June. With no buyers knocking on the door, the Philadelphia Bulletin has reported, owner Brian Tierney went hat-in-hand to the Governor’s office to talk about giving the paper some public help. Mr. Tierney won’t comment on the record, while Mr. Rendell’s spokesman tells us the conversations weren’t specific but that state help is a possibility.

Really, if the Inquirer needs a bailout, let John Grogan pay for it out of his insipid-dog-story schmundo.