– Happy Halloween. Scariest costume this year: Second Term Obama.
– Cheezburger vs WaPo. A very interesting slapfight, wherein WaPo loses. Great piece.
Journalism, particularly newspapers, have been fleecing America for decades and the bill has come due. Before the Internet, geography and distance has been a costly barrier to information. In fact, newspapers have exploited this to their enormous financial and social advantage, going as far as having Congress pass the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 — which exempted them from certain antitrust laws.
For decades, newspapers have used their power to charge inflated advertising rates, fill the paper with commodity wire articles, and pretend to act in the best interest of the community while ignoring their needs. With that, the vibrance and competitiveness of journalism withered on the vine. “Objectivity” became the religion, not serving the readers. Change was bad, and the status quo filled the coffers.
Until the Internet came along.
[…]
Sure, the new journalism may not look like the journalism of yore, but society isn’t under threat from the lack of journalism. Newspapers, however, are continuing to see declines as the readership shrinks due to an age demographic, inconvenience of print, and shrinking budgets.
[…]
What’s killing newspapers isn’t the lack of new ideas, it’s people who obstruct the change that’s required to survive.
– CNN shuffles around its morning lineup.
– Romney’s new position of eschewing national media is part of the campaign’s strategy to protect his frontrunner status. Limit access, protect the image.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.