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 ...
"There was a land of Publishers and Editors called the Newspaper Business... Here in this pretty world Journalism took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Reporters and their Enablers, of Anonymous Sources and of Stringers... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization Gone With the Wind..."
With apologies to Margaret Mitchell...
Ping
Somewhat related.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122901376.html
Resolutions for The Post and Readers
By Deborah Howell
Sunday, December 31, 2006; Page B06
The interests of readers and journalists often intersect in my office. Maybe a better word would be clash.
Journalists and readers don't always think alike. In fact, journalists, who can be a contentious lot, don't always agree with one another. One of my great challenges is negotiating the gap -- sometimes a chasm -- between how readers perceive journalists and how journalists perceive themselves. Looking for ways to increase understanding between readers and journalists is my new year's resolution and a subject worthy of returning to often in 2007.
Paying attention to readers' needs is my job -- and the job of Post reporters and editors. But you can't do a readership survey every day to decide what to cover and put on Page 1 and what size the headline type ought to be and what the lead ought to be. That's the job of journalists.
- snip -
What can put journalists in a funk is when their work -- sometimes under tough or dangerous conditions -- is constantly second-guessed or not appreciated by readers.
Message from the ivory tower:
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.
The peanut gallery found the shoe on the other foot.
Read my column and shut up, you middle-American mouth-breather!!!
Joel Stein is a sanctimonius bed-wetter.
*************
Hey, Joel! Guess what? Quite a few authors list their e-mail addresses these days. Welcome to the 21st century, Luddite.
Exactly!
Sinking readership and revenue, because of biased and mediocre reporting, is finally taking its toll ...
But why do I get the idea that if I tell people not to subscribe to his fishwrap, that he may berate me for trampling on his First Amendment rights?
The Scarlett O'Hara's of the journalism world reply: "Oh, fiddle-de-dee."
Hey, I can respect the honesty in that column.
I use the same blunt honesty when the paper calls me up to ask if I want to subscribe.
I actually found the article quite humorous. LOL! (This comes from someone married to a journalist and who went to journalism school herself) : )
Wow! How the blogosphere is going to have fun with this one!
And not one bit more.
A lot of e-mail screeds argue that, in return for the privilege of broadcasting my opinion, I have the responsibility to listen to you. I don't. No more than you have a responsibility to read me. I'm not an elected servant. I'm an arrogant, solipsistic, attention-needy freak who pretends to have an opinion about everything.
I haven't seen arrogance like this since GM, Ford and Chrysler in the 1970s - and I expect that the results for the MSM will be the same but faster.
And the MSM will end up in the same place Anakin did if they don't get a clue.
Send your money. Just don't write, phone or e-mail my office.
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