From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Newspapers are in big trouble. Should Americans care?

Hello again, I'm Mormon-Ale and this is To the Point.

From Public Radio International and daily look at the issues, Americans care about most. Newspapers are shedding staff and reducing services just like other businesses,

but even if the economy picks up, they may not bounce back. Tumbling ad revenues and

stockholders hungry for profit are creating a familiar scenario, but the Internet is what's

making things different. On to the point, major papers in New York,

Washington, and Los Angeles give readers national and international perspective. Local papers keep

watch on business interests and city hall. Will technology lead to the erosion of institutional memory

and professional standards? On reporter's notebook later on, the last vestige of Iraq's nuclear program goes to Canada.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public

Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and

the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.

Hello again. This is Warren and only back with To the Point. The Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times are among the national newspapers facing financial disaster. Local newspapers are cutting back all over the country. On To the Point, will the Internet replace the papers as America's major source of news?

Can it perform those functions Thomas Jefferson thought were central to the functioning of American democracy?

On reporter's notebook, 500 tons of uranium have been shipped from Iraq to Canada.

We'll find out why and what's next.

First, this news update. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke plans a clampdown on so-called exotic mortgages and high-cost loans to people with weak credit. He also wants to

extend the kind of low-cost oversight loans that prevented the Wall Street banker Bear Stearns

from collapsing before it was sold in March. Paul Leonard is director in California for the Center for Responsible Lending.

Paul Leonard, good to have you on our program.

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