Posted on 04/03/2009 7:13:03 AM PDT by abb
The newspaper industry is turning upside down. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, the Baltimore Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle are among the papers that have ceased daily publication or announced in recent months that they may have to stop publishing. Not long ago, Tribune Co., owner of the Baltimore Sun, filed for bankruptcy.
None of this bodes well for our democracy. Our country depends on an open and free press to monitor what happens in our communities so that Americans can make sound judgments about their lives and leaders. Thomas Jefferson, a man who was frequently vilified by newspapers, summed it up best when he said: "If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter."
Like Jefferson, I believe that a well-informed public is the core of our democracy. How can we forget the role newspapers played in uncovering the Watergate and Enron scandals or the AIG bonus debacle? News stories, reported by journalists, often bring to public attention decisions and actions that affect all of us. While the world has increasingly fast access to news, one fact remains unchanged: When it comes to original, in-depth reporting that records and exposes actions, issues and opportunities in our communities, nothing has replaced newspapers. Most, if not all, sources of journalistic information, from Google to broadcast news or punditry, gain their original material from the laborious and expensive work of experienced newspaper reporters diligently working their beats over the course of years. Not hours, years.
The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that a typical metropolitan paper runs 70 stories a day, counting the national, local and business sections. In contrast, a half-hour of television news includes only 10 to 12 stories.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
That’s certainly keeping an open mind.
General Motors is being faulted for having poor management, and for that management for making poor business decisions. Newspaper management gets a free ride, because, they write the stories.
Seems to me the news gap will be filled regardless of who provides it.
You are correct. Newspapers always thought they provided a 'product' - namely 'news.' They were wrong. They were and are only a distribution system.
Indeed. The press in whatever form needs to be unbiased arbitors of the truth and pursue it regardless of political leanings. The editorial boards across America that endorsed Barack Obama and failed to investigate him with the same tenacity they did McCain and Palin aren't "open and free press" as Jefferson would have envisioned.
Cetainly a more pleasant and flexible distribution system than one tethered to a power supply.
Other than the fact that the only “news” distributed by a newspaper is what the publisher deems fit to print.
News is not the only thing people enjoy about or read in, the paper.
I print out the crosswords on a sheet of paper and put them on a clipboard.
Fred Piscop’s puzzles here.
http://www.macnamarasband.com/
OK
Keller’s response only enforces the reality of his elite fascist arrogance.
DITTO!
The Marxists will do anything to keep their Pravda Presses alive.
Who wants to bet they would NEVER sit on a story about a Republican ... (well unless doing so would help a dem.)
Yeah, the New York Times is like Dufar - a few Unitarian liberal suck-up types will "drama queen it" - but in the long run - it's hopeless.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003958825
Is ‘Florida Times-Union’ Parent Headed For Bankruptcy Next Week?
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003958867
‘Pensacola News Journal’ Cutting 83 Jobs in Print — Outsourcing to ‘Mobile Press-Register’
Who said that press had to be printed and run by the DNC?
The key words here are open and free, neither of which suitably describe the present print media cabal.
“My fear is that the govt will bail them our and make the propaganda relationship official and permanent”
Spot on; bank on it.
Like Jefferson, I believe that a well-informed public is the core of our democracy."...and that's why it is necessary to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine..."
I got question who want buy SF Chroncile
That is a trick question, LOL! There is no answer except to say "no one."
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