Posted on 03/03/2009 4:01:33 PM PST by SmithL
Remember the film (1958), Teacher's Pet, with Doris Day & Clark Gable ? Brief synopsis: Hard-boiled, self-educated newspaper editor Clark Gable(high school drop out) turns down an opportunity to lecture before a night-school journalism class (Doris Day), publicly ridiculing the notion that the art of news writing can be taught. Gable's publisher, sensing a good story, orders the recalcitrant editor to appear at the lecture. Upon entering the classroom, Gable overhears journalism teacher Doris Day, the daughter of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter (who liked to hear himself talk), condemn Gable's attitude towards higher education..." Even a discussion on advertising dollars come into play. if you want to keep a newspaper to remain alive.
The quote from the film was: "If you want to sell papers tomorrow, try deceit. If you want to sell papers ten years from tomorrow, try honesty." JBS (Day's father has the quote framed).
One of the top newspaper films.
All changed with the Internet. Papers can be read for free--news as it happens. Iraqi bloggers gave us real time happenings on the war. Even though we would like to always blame it on the publisher, and in part that does come into play, but the heavier blame goes to technology.
Local hometown newspapers I hope will will survive to read at the local diner over a cup of coffee. I still buy a book, and will never use the e-books.
Check out the black and white film, Teacher's Pet. Fun but some serious related dialog as well. TCM.
The Drive-By Media always thought they created "news" from raw materials like some blast furnace that makes steel from iron ore.
When you boil it down, news is nothing but information that has not been distributed - "I know something that you don't." But once everyone else knows, it is no longer "news" and it no longer has value. The value is actually created by withholding distribution.
The Drive-Bys were able to extract that value because they had a near monopoly on the time, place and method of its distribution.
A telecommunications infrastructure of TV and radio, or the printing and distribution system of a publisher was available to only those with enough capital to build such systems. Individuals were at the mercy of these enterprises for their information.
No longer. The Internet and digitization has shattered that monopoly forever. And there's nothing anyone can do about it.
Would prefer not to.
The Comical itself is on Dinosaur Media Death Watch and can't be gone soon enough for some of us. I for one will therefore not be clicking the link to "Read more" because a) I care very little for what Ms. Saunders writes and b) page hits count toward online ad revenues. The fewer hits sfgate.com gets the sooner they will be gone.
For thirty five years we begged and pleaded before we canceled our subscriptions and to this day they pretend that we don't even exist.
Everything that libs touch, they kill. The liberal kiss of death.
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