Posted on 01/02/2007 9:49:22 AM PST by abb
Don't bother sending anything to that e-mail address below -- because I don't care.
That address on the bottom of this column? That is the pathetic, confused death knell of the once-proud newspaper industry, and I want nothing to do with it. Sending an e-mail to that address is about as useful as sending your study group report about Iraq to the president.
Here's what my Internet-fearing editors have failed to understand: I don't want to talk to you; I want to talk at you. A column is not my attempt to engage in a conversation with you. I have more than enough people to converse with. And I don't listen to them either. That sound on the phone, Mom, is me typing.
Some newspapers even list the phone numbers of their reporters at the end of their articles. That's a smart use of their employees' time. Why not just save a step and have them set up a folding table at a senior citizen center with a sign asking for complaints?
Where does this end? Does Philip Roth have to put his e-mail at the end of his book? Does Tom Hanks have to hold up a sign with his e-mail at the end of his movie? Should your hotel housekeeper leave her e-mail on your sheets? Are you starting to see how creepy this is?
Not everything should be interactive. A piece of work that stands on its own, without explanation or defense, takes on its own power.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Anyone With A Modem Can Report On The World
...[Hillary Clinton] said, "We're all going to have to rethink how we deal with the Internet. As exciting as these new developments are, there are a number of serious issues without any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function."
Independence From the Press Rocks the Gatekeeper's World
... the idea of the press as the great adjudicator has also been knocked down. ...
To say, “I don’t think newspapers can be the gatekeepers anymore,” as James O’Shea did, is to recognize an historic shift in the politics of information. It’s the sort of thing that can leave you stunned, angry, confused and depressed, if you have always thought of yourself as keeper of the gate. ...
Newspaper sale$ decline should be blamed on the Journos
...People who work at journalism full time ought to be able to do a better job of it than people for whom it is a hobby. But that's not going to happen as long as we "professional" journalists ignore stories we don't like and try to hide our mistakes. We think of ourselves as "gatekeepers." But there is not much future in being a gatekeeper when the walls are down.
Well, I certainly wouldn't argue with that. It is a bit humorous to hear a journalist proclaim that his twenty minutes of research makes him an expert on any subject - I've heard the same from actors and believe it just as little.
But "work"? Joel, I hate to have to break it to you but a gassy opinion column in the LA Times isn't exactly War And Peace. Sometimes the folks most in need of a little correction are the last to know it.
You want to know what's really bothering typewriter-boy here? It's that anyone with an Internet account can do precisely what he does and that not a few of us do it better. I'm hoping he sticks to his sinecure behind a desk because it doesn't sound like he could cut it out here on the Wild Wild Web.
Or maybe he's just lonely. I have a great idea - let's all send Joel an email to show him how much we care. He says he doesn't read them but he's lying, and his quote up top verifies it.
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” ("Who shall watch the watchers themselves?")
Hey, Mr. Stein: The genie is out of the bottle thanks to the internet. Viewers and readers no longer have to accept your abuse. We can dispatch with your garbage point of view with the click of a mouse. And we can talk back. More importantly, we can dig into your columns and detect your bias and untruths. The genie is not going back into the bottle. MSM: RIP.
Hahahahaha.....
It's funny how REPORTERS never cut their subjects any slack under the same conditions. So from now on, it's not that the reporters are wrong, I say they lied. If it's good enough for Bush, it's good enough for these bastards.
Perhaps, but that column is pretty clearly tongue in cheek.
However, when Joel sarcastically writes "First of all, I did a tiny bit of research for my column, so I'm already familiar with your brilliant argument", the time comes to mind when I busted a famous writer for an incorrect factoid (directly related to his specialty, and the subject of the column) in his nationally released article.
He emailed me back with the news that the editor of the Times who he was working with basically stuck the incorrect line in his opinion piece (for effect, I guess).
Maybe Joel has total editorial control - or maybe he's in single-A ball, journalistically speaking. ;-)
Too bad the rest of us can't treat Mr. Stein with the same "respect".
Car designers could give Mr. Stein a car they would like to drive, computer programmers could give him a computer system they, and only they, could use - superior but much too difficult for a mere journalist.
There's lots of us who would like to ignore our customers ... it's easier. Easier except that, like the MSM, we'd go out of business...
"That guy behind me? Totally gay for me. Hell, I'd be too. In case you stumbled here by accident, I'm the guy who loves porn and hates America!"
Shadenfreude is so much better when a bedwetter is feeling sorry for himself. This guy is a cheap-shot artist who is loosing his forum and does not know what to do.
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