The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is hosting a two-day "Workshop on Journalism and the Internet" in Washington, D.C. The workshop serves as a forum for industry leaders, consumer advocates, academics, and lawyers to advise the FTC on possible changes to copyright law, antitrust law, and tax policy. The FTC convened the workshop in response to concerns that investigative journalism and coverage of public affairs news is on the decline due to financial difficulties by news agencies and new online competition from citizen journalists, bloggers, and aggregate content providers. The FTC asked workshop participants for proposals related to: (a) new tax treatments of news organizations, (b) changes in copyright, including the "fair use" doctrine as applied to news stories, (c) antitrust exemptions as applied to certain conduct of news organizations, and (d) greater public funding for public affairs news. The Workshop continues today and is open to the public. For those unable to attend, the Workshop is available as a live webcast. More