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The deepening shade continued to rise from the impact crater. Tremors were felt for miles. A nearby herd of daileditiors ran, fully aware they must stay ahead of the darkening shadows that grew quickly behind them. Off cliffsides and into marshes, through unknown thickets and into closed arroyos, the fear blinded beasts knew their survival was in question. Their round bellies ached. Swollen by years of lazy grazing they had long since forgotten how to fend for themselves and knew only the gentle slopes and sweet local grass. Thier small minds could not comprehend exactly what was happening, but the meteor I-ternetius reminded them of just how fragile their docility had become.

Since this article came from the paper that ends up in my box (or driveway, yard, bushes, neighbor’s breakfast table, etc.) everyday, I would like to offer Jack a suggestion which I will include in an email later. The paper recently ran a big comics promotion which invited people to vote on which comics stayed, which went, and which were added. It was a ‘Love It’ or ‘Hate It’ format. I suggest that Mr. McElroy do the same thing with his local columnists. The paper recently added a new Conservative columnist, who was found through a several month long process of locals writing columns and people expressing their opinion. I suppose this addition was in response to three or four local liberal columnists, who are of course referred to simply as ‘columnists’. I think ole Jack may be surprised to find out that in a conservative East Tennessee burg that people might not like the crap put forth from some of their featured writers. In particular, Don Williams was apparently infected with some sort of DU bug in the run-up to the election. He would soak in and repeat any whacked-out, left-wing rumor regardless of plausibility as fact and another obvious reason to not only not vote for W, but lock him away in some dark dungeon. The guy made Molly Ivins seam calm and reasoned.

That being said, about the only thing I read in the paper anymore is the sports page, classified, comics and puzzles.

I think if newspapers did two things they would still be able to survive and thrive:

1) Admit they are not impartial and fine tune the "bias" to be closer to the local community. Yes NY & LA papers might get more slightly more liberal, but I don't think so. Media should would the 70/30 issues the same way politicians do.

2) Report actual news. I know it might be hard to do, but the paper should to be more than political and business press releases.

Demographics 101. As the 70% left leaning (as a class) Baby Boomers entered the market during the period 1965 - 1985, the big city papers pandered to them. From 1985 - 1995 in particular, they moved further and further to the left, and away from mainstream America. Now, as the younger generations than the Boomers take over, not only are we less paper oriented and more on line oriented than the Boomers, but also, we are more conservative. The big city papers missed the boat by ignoring the younger generations and overly focussing on the boomers. And they are not the first. Most large commercial orgs overly focus on the Loudest Generation.