Posted on 02/26/2009 7:58:18 AM PST by SmithL
A couple of years ago, when speaking to a local group, I mentioned that The Chronicle was losing money. A couple in the back of the room rudely applauded. How thrilled those two must have felt when - if - they learned of Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega's announcement Tuesday that the Hearst Corp. will implement "significant" workforce cuts. If the cuts don't pay off, then the Hearst Corp. will "offer the newspaper for sale or close it altogether."
Bloggers and e-mailers are crowing. If The Chronicle is shuttered, they'll be dancing a jig.
Many conservatives feel a warm glow at the possible demise of an institution that they believe to be failing because of liberal bias. On the far left, that same glow will satisfy those who think newspapers are not liberal enough.
As for those who only read their news online, here's a news flash: News stories do not sprout up like Jack's bean stalk on the Internet. To produce news, you need professionals who understand the standards needed to research, report and write on what happened. If newspapers die, reliable information dries up.
Reduced ad revenue and falling newspaper circulation mean that there will be fewer people to cover the same number of stories. In the middle of an economic crisis and President Obama's federal spending bonanza, there will be fewer watchdogs to guard the shop.
So to those of you who argue that the demise of liberal newspapers (The Chronicle in particular) is deserved, I offer a caveat: Be careful what you wish for.
Remember the ugly consequences of San Francisco's sanctuary city policy for juvenile offenders, who were sent abroad instead of to jail? Or Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' failure to tackle crime in Oaktown? Or reports on corporate bonuses for execs at bailed-out banks? Imagine....
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
But, still, that's no excuse for this kind of self-pity...
To produce news, you need professionals who understand the standards needed to research, report and write on what happened. If newspapers die, reliable information dries up.
Debra, your "professionals" have morphed into dishonest propagandists, with no interest in the truth if it reflects poorly on Democrats. They haven't provided "reliable" information in decades -- so what if they dry up?
I agree, and I hate them too. Why the hell not, they've made their careers out of hating me. In my entire life, I've never once read or heard the term "left wing extremist" from the print or broadcast media.
I hope that Sweet [barefoot] Hubby, a) didn't step in any of the calling cards, and b) picked up the correct horse manure...
I think that is the quote of the day.
Ms. Saunders,
While you, personally, are fairer to conservative Americans than most of your peers, the notion that reliable information comes only from newspapers is riotously hilarious to those of us who pay attention. Journalism, with the (for now) exception of sports, abandoned the pursuit of “who, what, when, where and why?” a long time ago.
The ideological demographics of J-school grads aside, I really don’t see how alienating 40% of a potential clientele is good business for anyone. Further, when I could potentially fail a “Pepsi Challenge” between a newspaper’s political reporting and the Myspace blog of my friend’s 14-year-old daughter, the problem is the product.
Add to this the infuriating bias and condescending errors of omission (they’re more plausibly deniable, after all), and I wouldn’t buy most newspapers to use as a pillow on the subway - especially when that money is needed to pay mortgages for “homeowners” with far larger TVs than mine on which to watch THEIR news.
That said, no one wants to see you lose your jobs - but it won’t be the first time someone learned a lesson far too late to apply it in time.
Regards,
A frustrated “blue-state” taxpayer
Dunno. But you will need to learn Spanish, else you won't be able to communicate with your co-workers...
Stealing it? That just leaves me an unpaid expert....
It would be so easy to put me in both categories, if you’d just send me all your money! ;^)
Is it only a coinky-dink the manure and entrepreneur rhyme?
If I actually, like, you know, had any money, I'd make March's mortgage payment first...
No doubt Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern would seem so too. I remember her pseudo-conservative posturing and anti-gun rantings when she wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News here in southern California.
I saw the journalists in training use the student paper to try to oust the seated student council (who didn’t even hold much power on campus) on phony charges of incompetence (when they held letters in hand that absolved the student council of any error in a botched event). They ran the letters AFTER the student election (and the existing council was largely reseated anyway).
That was decades ago. The tactics haven’t changed.
Lies by omission are lies too.
“Tell the truth, the WHOLE truth, and NOTHING BUT the truth.”
Media puts forth a false recording of history. They are rightfully shunned into bankruptcy.
I wish the management would relent on that request for particularly vitriolic Morford fits.
Newspapers are an outmoded concept anyway. The news is 12-36 hours old before it sees print in the newspaper anyway.
And home delivery? You don’t even find home delivery of milk these days.
Ad rates (from fraudulently boosted circulation figures) are what keep newspapers in business.
Who needs a daily ad-zine that you have to pay for? They mail those out for free to people who want them.
Local news can be covered in 1 or 2 editions of a weekly or semi-weekly publication.
Bill Ayers was not a left wing extremist. He is a rehabilitated activist who made some “mistakes” as a youth (none of which he regrets).
And real investigative reporting is far more likely in the various weekly papers.
BO's name would fit nicely in that sentence.
Seriously, have you ever read or heard that term? I'm 57, and I swear I haven't, and I remember the Chicago Seven trial.
What you said.
Null and Void's reply: I hope that Sweet [barefoot] Hubby, a) didn't step in any of the calling cards, and b) picked up the correct horse manure...
My response: I really appreciate your droll sense of humor. Happy trails, Irish Queen
As someone who has never seen an accurate and in-context quote, who has attended events and read the newspaper account afterward (which made me check to see if they thought they were in the same place at the same time I was), I can safely assert that the writer has the above statement bassackwards.
If the information is complete and accurate, you will sell papers. That will sell ad space, which will keep the paper off life-support and going on its own.
Otherwise, if I want to sell something, I can place an ad in a local free-distribution marketplace tabloid or go for targeted advertising mags and reach far more people for the money.
Who What Where When Why....and don't butcher the quotes to suit an agenda, just report, we'll decide.
Because then we won't have any watchdogs keeping an eye on the government and powerful interests on behalf of society, presumably?
I'm sorry Ms. Saunders, but the overwhelming majority of your media compatriots abdicated that responsibility a while ago. Sure, they will still enforce it on the people they harbor deep personal loathing for (such as George Bush), but otherwise they're basically little more than pro-government shills that have no real credibility with most of us.
More like-minded people in the press such as yourself and Bernard Goldberg should have had the courage to speak with much more vigor a while ago, but it's too late now.
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