Posted on 07/04/2008 6:20:58 AM PDT by kellynla
On the lobby wall of the newspaper where I got my first reporting job are the Thomas Jefferson words that U.S. journalists like to trot out as America's Independence Day nears:
"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
Of course, Jefferson also said the only reliable truths in newspapers were the advertisements, and that he was happiest when not reading the papers.
But as to his iconic quote, it's no secret that we're trending toward the former. And anyone who cheers the collapse of the newspaper industry should consider why Jefferson put aside his distaste for the vitriol and nonsense of the press for the larger principle of healthy democracies needing informed citizens.
Last week, almost 1,000 jobs were eliminated in the American newspaper industry, perhaps the bloodiest week yet of a year where many papers are fighting for their lives.
You read about the great names in American journalism - the Baltimore Sun, the Boston Globe, the San Jose Mercury News - as if reading the obituary page. Rich U.S. cities like San Francisco can no longer support a profitable daily paper.
Columnists, reporters, editors, cartoonists and photographers who brought to life the daily narrative of a city or region have been swept aside. What started as layoffs and buyouts is edging toward closures and bankruptcies.
And here's the great paradox: All of this bad news is coming at a time when the audience and reach of many newspapers has never been greater. The Internet may kill the daily newspaper as we know it, but it's allowed some papers to increase their readership by tenfold.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
It’s like Rush said, the newspapers will examine every reason for their failure, except their own content.
I'm trying to see the down side to this....
the los angels times reads like your old leftist college professor’s dribble.
i’m tired of hearing about the homeless.
the truth is: many are psychiatric patients. in the ‘70s liberals wanted them out of hospitals. and state govt’s saw an opportunity to cut their expenses.
many are alcoholics and drug addicts.
where are bill gates and warren buffett?
That’s alot of Black Oblack campaign workers. Perhaps they could try reporting the Truth and see how that works. Works pretty good for Rush and Fox?
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
I won’t be happy until the New York Times closes its doors. That will be a great day for America.
....I just don’t see any sympathy from the American public on this...I think our little hometown twice weekly paper will be just fine...Rush will tell me all I need to know nationally....there’s too nuch national news out there any way....many of us remember when TV used to sign off at midnight and we got along OK.
Mr. Egan is trying to say the problems our liberal-left newspapers are currently experiencing are not as a result of their liberal-left slant but their failings are only because the newspaper industry has not kept up with technology. In other words, there is not a problem with the liberal-left message, the problem is with the outdated messenger.
These leftist journalists will even try to spin their own demise.
In Jefferson’s day, newspapers were proudly partisan and competed with each other in the arena of ideas. Today, one variety of newspapers are already dead and gone - conservative newspapers. So why should we mourn the passing of the liberal ones, especially when they have the sanctimony to claim that only they hold sway over the events of the day.
Be gone, be gone. The arena of ideas is the internet and the battle is raging therein, these leftie rags are up to date as the buggy whip.
” I won’t be happy until the New York Times closes its doors. That will be a great day for America.”
I would be happier if a CONSERVATIVE purchased the newspaper.
In the context of the article, this is a 100% specious statement.
Someone should tell Timberly that the poorly executed, half-witted argumentum ad verecundiam is a contributing reason why people are shying away from him and his ilk.
***the truth is: many are psychiatric patients. in the ‘70s liberals wanted them out of hospitals. and state govt’s saw an opportunity to cut their expenses.
many are alcoholics and drug addicts.***
How true! Also, we had the ‘60s and it became fashionable among the drug-riddled Nam protesters to take to living on the street instead of getting a job.
***”anyone who cheers the collapse of the newspaper industry should consider why Jefferson put aside his distaste for the vitriol and nonsense of the press for the larger principle of healthy democracies needing informed citizens.”***
>>>In the context of the article, this is a 100% specious statement.>>>
Yes! The IHT took the wonderful quote of Jefferson and turned it around to make it look as though Jefferson approved of the likes of Soros and Buffet bankrolling a one-opinion commie press.
A constant spew of disinformation does nothing to create an informed citizenry.
”Rich U.S. cities like San Francisco can no longer support a profitable daily paper.”
Look on the bright side Tim; at least they wont have to pay a wind-fall profits tax. **smirk**
Isn’t the IHT the bastard child of the NYTimes?
I noticed this snarkfest POS doesn’t allow direct response to his rantings lies...this old fart NY Times peon needs to be pensioned off to some Homo Colony for NY Slimers.
As the extinction process gains momentum, I’m sure the mass exodus to said ‘Colony’ will increase proportionally.
Of course they can. The Liberal media seems incapable of understanding an incredibly simple truth: their anti-business, socialist agenda has completely turned off their advertisers — who are, after all, businesspeople.
They've been biting the hand that feeds them for decades.
This one’s a real piece of work, don’t even know where to start.
I read a newspaper held in my hands last Monday for the first time in 18 months. It felt strange. It was in a doctor’s waiting room.
It made loud sounds when I turned the pages, and it was hard to put back together as I had found it.
Since when, exactly, have "presstitutes" been in the business of "informing" the country, as opposed to indoctrinating the public? When journalists forgo "advocacy journalism", and it is no longer taught as a viable concept in "schools of journalism" across the country, then, and only then, will I even be *able* to conceive of a time where the press informs the public, without some hidden, or even not so hidden agenda in mind...
the infowarrior
Anyone who relies on a newspaer to be informed is a myopic dunce of the highest order.
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