Posted on 11/27/2004 11:31:07 AM PST by forest
Has anyone else noticed that the silent majority seems to be involved in a silent boycott of all the biased news outlets that have been attacking President Bush, our military and the nation's Christian heritage this past year?
If we believe a new report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations[1], which collects and monitors circulation data for newspapers and magazines, the liberal press is in deep doo-doo. Some of the nation's largest daily newspapers reported steep circulation declines and overall circulation is down across the industry. The top 20 papers suffered the biggest weekday and Sunday declines, among them the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post. Fancy that, eh.
Earlier, Newsday, Hoy, The Dallas Morning News and The Chicago Sun-Times were caught overstating their circulations by tens of thousands of copies each day. The parent companies of these papers had to set aside over $130 million to reimburse advertisers.
Even AP admitted it on November 1: "Circulation declined at most major newspapers across the country in the last half year, the latest blow for an industry already rocked by a scandal involving circulation misstatements that has undermined the confidence of investors and advertisers."[2]
The liberal L.A. Times reported a major loss in circulation numbers -- down by over 53,000 subscribers in just the first six months of this year and still declining.
Earlier this month, The Washington Post's Executive Editor, Leonard Downie, Jr., met with hundreds of employees to outline new plans to combat ever-declining circulation.
As repeatedly reported here, the newspaper industry has struggled for years with stagnant or decreasing readership levels. Most liberal newspapers are losing money. Many are almost bankrupt. So, they inflate their actual sales numbers so they can charge advertisers more. That keeps them in business for a few years longer. Until they get caught, that is.
The problem is, these companies are also lying to stockholders about the health of the corporation when they do that. The Securities and Exchange Commission kind of frowns on that stuff. Which means, these newspapers will soon see multi-million dollar fines -- some are arguing their case for that already. Then, they will realize much less income because they will be forced to lower advertising rates to where they should be, based on their actual circulation. That will put them even deeper in the red.
For those newspapers already running in the red, this means they will probably be going out of business soon. Interestingly enough, this mostly seems to apply to the liberal rags. Many conservative publications seem to be doing just fine.
Of course, this is a natural shakeout. Old Media -- the liberal contingent, anyway -- is no longer respected, or even believed, by what is approaching a majority in this country. After all, this is the dawning of the age of the New Media, and a more honest and fact-based viewpoint. The palpable media bias so obvious in the last election cycle went far to show the American people just how completely twisted and out of touch Old Media really is.
Unfortunately, though, Old Media is too stupid and/or bullheaded to realize they are stabbing themselves in the gut by being so blatantly biased. They refuse to clean house and hire reporters to report the news instead of "journalists" who want to twist the news to the left. Or, maybe stockholders are willing to sacrifice their corporations for the promotion of socialism.
Anyway, we look for a major wave of lay-offs to begin at the larger newspapers starting at the beginning of next year. By this time next year, there will be a few thousand well experienced liberal scribblers out of work and wandering the streets. (Unfortunately, some will then become teachers.)
Those who can do straight reporting, and/or write from a conservative viewpoint, may be very much in demand. As Old Media gives out one last gasp of reorganization to save their newspapers -- their publishing corporations -- their stockholders may very well demand that they dump the "journalists," try a round of honest "reporting" and perhaps tend towards a more conservative bent. If not, the writing is on the wall for them all. Few will survive the next five years.
Should we care? Yes. We still need local newspapers.
But, after the way the mainstream liberal media trashed President Bush these past many months, I'll have to say that they deserve what they get. Which, ultimately, could be bankruptcy.
1. <http://www.accessabc.com/>
2. <http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBCHP9911E.html>
I will remember to use that next time they call.
The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn't even bother to ask. As a former subscriber, I get papers every now and again on my lawn, which I suspect is their attempt at inflating their reader numbers.
The mainstream media's major problem is that they don't have any talent. Everybody is smarter than a self-chosen few. They've circled the wagons and locked the gates but they've locked the talent on the outside -- and are left with all these guaranteed lifetime union writers.
That's also the problem of the universities; they're stuck with all these tenured drones who are not the most creative and innovative minds -- but people who just want to hang on to lifetime jobs, doing as little as possible for the most compensation possible. This is your entitled class -- of people earning top dollar for jobs that no longer need to be done.
Obviously in the Internet age, every town does not need a full staff to report the news. They probably need an editor -- of the best reporting in the world. Universities and schools no longer need professors to read their lectures to distribute that information to their classes. That need actually went out with the Gutenberg press 600 years ago but they still haven't dropped that tradition of maintaining that privileged and entitled class. They are the corps of today's liberals -- and the liberal culture of entitlement.
That's what the real news of these times is really about -- but you won't read about it in the press. They can all just drop away and something better will fill the void; it's now about fighting for their own entitlements, status and legitimacy. Meanwhile, the basis for that credibility is eroding.
Such developments happen all the time -- but the defenders of the status quo will never acknowledge that. No, they will maintain that things have always been the way they are and always will be this way. "History," they will repeat, "always repeats itself," as though that wishful-thinking was the truth.
All their cliches are challenged in time and found lacking in any substance. Liberalism works as long as everybody can be coerced into believing in that truth. When a few begin to challenge that authority and the authoritarian personalities behind them who grade everybody on their correctness, the whole structure collapses.
It's a time of change but those who are doing the reporting don't want to see it; it is not in their self-serving best interest. That is the challenge and the dilemma of the media and communications in an age in which vastly greater is possible. They can only try harder to sell us what they've got -- as though that's still the only thing there is.
Into a vast sinkhole of nothingness, yes, the space between Brian William's ears.
I cancelled a local liberal paper because of their bias and their refusal to admit it, and took a paper from farther away because it's more balanced editorially. They both get most of their "news" from AP, however.
Meanwhile, productive members of society, wishing to escape the regulation and moral and material poverty of the big city, become sub- and exurbans. They may work in the city and pay its payroll taxes, but they don't live there. In time, they get tired of reading the dailies published there, since the dailies no longer respect, and perhaps even become intolerant of, their moral sensibilities.
Freed from the necessity to obey liberal political dictates to earn a living, have a school, a church, or entertainment, exurbanites finally cancel their newspaper subscriptions and read the news on the internet.
It's a lovely thing, I think. I hate the two dailies here in Cincinnati, and I used to subscribe to the Enquirer. But it became a victim of lib-chic, editorially, and its articles (even the comics!) became offensive. Now I have coffee in front of the CRT or laptop and get better than what it wants to feed me. Indeed, I do love it.
For details of the circulation scandal, and more info on the decline of newspapers, go to:
http://www.inma.org
(To read many articles, you need to register for free.)
The "blue state" newspapers are even appealing to "red state" sensibilities - sports fans - in an effort to boost circulation. Recently, the self-styled intellectually elite Boston Globe ran coupons for Patriots pins, and included free glossy color photos of players. Apparently, not enough snotty Cambridgians and Lexingtonians are buying the rag.
"The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn't even bother to ask."
Neither does the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It started showing up on my driveway in a nice little orange plastic bag a few months ago. Imagine my surprise when a month later, a bill came!
The paper continued for a couple weeks more, but since I didn't respond to the bill, they quit after awhile. Sheesh. Of all the nerve.
Which the Cleveland Plain Dealer then writes off as a loss on their taxes.
"The Internet is dominated by conservaties;..."
Is it? I hope that is true, because we need to start dominating some sort of media (along with talk radio) to get the truth out!
ping
Here is a lib writer from the Toronto Star newspaper in Socialist Canukistan who admits the circulation numbers are down heavily there, too.
....failed in developing the crucial part of the process of psychological development, allowing the Ego to recognize a "reality" separate from itself. This distinction between inside and outside is critical. At an earlier stage of development, the ego had an all-encompassing, almost boundless sense of the world around it; with maturity comes a "shrunken" sense of reality because the ego has delimited itself from the outside world.
Diagnosis and Study courtesy of Siggy Frued
Sheeesh.
OK, HERE is a lib writer from the Toronto Star newspaper in Socialist Canukistan who admits the circulation numbers are down heavily there, too.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1288311/posts
It's been going on for longer than a year.
"I take absolute delight in making my objections clear when solicitors call"
Bravo. I also make it very clear when they call that THEIR paper consistiently takes editorial opinions that advocate taking $$ out of my pocket, therefore, my position (and anyone I can convince) is to deny my newspaper a source of income. The hope is that they will go out of business.
Defund them! Take away their sources of income and advertising dollars. They will either change or go out of business.
You predicted this elsewhere.
Now the time of reckoning has arrived.
More than just the media. I have been noticing that the movies by the most active anti-American actors and actresses are doing VERY poorly at the box office. I know that I will never, ever go to a movie with Susan Surandon or her squeeze.
Oh, good! Good news!
If this is true, we need to hit them while they're reeling, and try to deliver a death blow.
I quit buying the Sunday Horrorgroanian when I discovered that their classified ads could be accessed on-line. If I could get at the full-color ads and goopons for my local small-town rag the same way, I'd quit that one too (they're a bunch of leftists *even though* they're in the middle of one of the most conservative counties in Oregon, because there's one of those breeding-grounds of leftism, a college, leaking leftists like a running sore, into the staff of the local newspaper).
Anyone with ideas on how to whack the leftist print media while they're in trouble, please post.
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