The Media's Never-Ending Funeral

Splice Today ^ | April 13, 2009 | Russ Smith

[re_tail20]

Twenty-five years ago, during a holiday soiree at the home of longtime Baltimore Sun editorial writer and book reviewer James H. Bready, a friend of mine—like his Sun colleague Bready, now retired—balanced a goblet of white wine and plate of cheese and cold cuts, roared with laughter, pointed at his loud tie, and said, “The only bad thing about Christmastime is that there are so many parties packed into a 15-day span that it’s embarrassing to run into you and realize I’m wearing the same suit of clothes!” At the time, Mike was a hard-working education reporter, a classic “newspaperman” who, like the rest of us, couldn’t imagine the day when his lifelong profession would cease to exist. Two years later, when Times-Mirror Co. bought the Sun from the company’s local owners—not coincidentally the day after the local Hearst daily, The News-American published its last edition—it’s possible that extraordinarily prescient observers might’ve glimpsed the future, but I certainly wasn’t acquainted with any such person, who, in any case probably would’ve been dismissed as a gloom and doom flake.