Chicago Sun-Times whines that "good journalism" is threatened by newprint tariffs

The left-wing Chicago Sun-Times is acting childish. It's complaining that "good journalism," yes, "good journalism is in the headline, is at stake because of preliminary tariffs that might increase the cost of imported newsprint.

From an editorial there:

Allow us to explain, from firsthand experience, how a tariff can go wrong, threatening American jobs and leaving a city — our city — the poorer for it.

If you are reading this editorial in the paper version of the Sun-Times, as opposed to online, the newsprint you are holding likely was produced in Canada. Much of the newsprint used in the United States is imported from north of the border. There isn’t enough produced domestically to meet the demand.

But beginning this year, the Department of Commerce has imposed two preliminary tariffs — taxes on imported goods — that could eventually increase the price of Canadian newsprint by as much as 32 percent. This summer, the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission will decide whether to make the tariffs permanent.

As you can imagine, the tariffs already have created a heavy new financial burden on American newspapers, which are struggling in the age of the Internet. Newsprint is among a newspaper’s biggest expenses. If the tariffs are made permanent, the quality of American newspapers will be diminished. Inevitably, some will fold.

And newspapers have been going belly-up for decades.

Oh, why is American newsprint so scarce? Could it be because of burdensome EPA regulations? Follow up on that, Sun-Times, please.