Prof Decries Profit Motive In 'Killing' of Seattle P-I

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer could be going out of business. And the culprit is . . . capitalism. That's Pilgrim's Complaint. Tim Pilgrim, that is. The professor of journalism at Western Washington University was quoted today in the P-I's article about its own pending demise. According to the article, the paper's parent company, The Heart Corp.:

has put the paper up for sale and will stop publishing unless someone buys it in 60 days. If no buyer emerges, the paper would either become a Web-only publication or cease all operations.

Economic reasons have forced the state's oldest morning newspaper into a sale, Steven Swartz, president of The Hearst Corp.'s newspaper division, told employees Friday.

"One thing is clear: At the end of the sale process, we do not see ourselves publishing in print," [said Swartz].

But not to fear. Prof. Pilgrim has a solution:

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Professor Tim Pilgrim.

Link to Pilgrim's personal page: http://hope.journ.wwu.edu/tpilgrim/

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Caricature of a left-wing journo prof ping to Today show list.

[xcamel]

Lots more (and a bunch of boo-hoo (not))
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=all;o=time;q=quick;s=Seattle%20P-I

[SandRat]

No problem Pilgram, just go ask your “Buddies” at the CPUSA to fund so that the Party Paper can continue. I’m sure all the “Fellow-Travelors” will chip in.

[an amused spectator]

Maybe Obama's new NKVD can round up the bloggers as Andrea Mitchell suggested and give us the ol' "single round behind the ear" treatment.

That will pave the way for forced subscriptions to REAL news outlets like the old print media, and the nasty old nattering online competition will be "buried" (literally).

Da, citizen!

[Travis McGee]

Simply adopting state run communism would solve all these problems!

(Obama’s working on it.)

[max americana]

he looks like a child-molesting, war protesting crack addict..in other words, a liberal.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Seeya, jerks.

[TheDon]

LOL! It’s not capitalism, it’s market forces. Market forces are like gravity. Good luck trying to defy them.

[HangnJudge]

Link to Pilgrim's personal page: http://hope.journ.wwu.edu/tpilgrim/

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth
of private power to the point where it becomes stronger
than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism
— ownership of government by an individual, by a group
or any controlling private power.”
— Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Ahh, so the state is all important,
not the people within it

Can't have the government by the people, for the people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_pluribus_unum

[Dilbert San Diego]

Newspapers will be the next industry to be bailed out by Congress. Due to 1st amendment or some such rationalization, a Democrat congress and president will want to subsidize the MSM for the “public interest” or “fairness” or some such garbage.

So many readers have abandoned newspapers that their business model doesn’t work anymore. Newspapers have to adapt or die, as any other business does. Unless, of course, they get bailed out and subsidized by a friendly Congress and President.

Exactly how “free” will our free press be, if they end up owing their existence to the gov’t? How much investigative journalism will they do if Obama and company could threaten to pull the plug on them????

[Pharmboy]

Did he also say that they never had this problem with Pravda?

[DGHoodini]

VBetter yet, he should convince all of his fellow professors and students to sign over their checks and loan checks to the paper, and provide their services for free. Surely the college will provide free room and boardc to all the students who do so...

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Couldn't happen to a nicer commie rag.

[TChad]

Obama's has chosen Professor Tim Pilgrim to head the new Ministry of Truth.

[GQuagmire]

Typical lifetime sucking at the teat of “academia” loser.In the real world he would be most likely a bum on the corner begging for change or on some sort of government assistance or both.

[VeniVidiVici]

Has the professor considered that "journalism" professors such as himself share responsibility for the very death of print journalism he decries? It's in part because the MSM is filled with "journalists" taught by the Professor Pilgrims of the academic world that Americans increasingly turn elsewhere for their news.

Excellent point! Newspapers didn't start doing badly until the New Age of Journalism.

Or since education started going downhill. Take your pick.

Why doesn't Pilgrim buy the paper? Or start his own.

[G Larry]

Here is how this works:

Libs already know and agree with everything the paper is going to print.

Conservatives already know and DISagree with everything the paper is going to print.

Nobody needs or wants the paper!

[RobRoy]

The PI should have died decades ago.

[martin_fierro]

[Pilgrim] suggested that the P-I staff buy the paper and run it at a lesser profit than Hearst requires -- perhaps assisted by a wealthy patron such as Bill Gates or Paul Allen.

Tenure really does strange things to your head.