"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...
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.
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.
