Saturday, October 27, 2007

Death of the American Newspaper

Quality of content, confusion about mission, skill of writers (add your own quotation marks), and inexcusable laziness. With naked, transparent, now near constant political partisanship (in lieu of actual news). Tells me in no uncertain terms, that readership will continue to drop precipitously. And even before zero point is reached, the concept, the very essence, will disappear before our very eyes. Presented for your approval, from today's L.A. Daily News, at the top of title page "Nation&World".


Ducks better duck: Cheney's got a gun


Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Attention, late-night talk show hosts: Vice President Dick Cheney is going hunting again.

Cheney became the butt of jokes for wounding a companion in 2006. On Monday, the vice president is picking up his shotgun for an outing in New York's Hudson River Valley. He is expected to spend the day at a hunting club in Dutchess County.

Cheney, on a hunting trip in Texas on Feb. 11, 2006, shot attorney Harry Whittington in the torso, neck and face when he pulled the trigger on his 28-gauge shotgun. The shooting was ruled an accident.


Links disappear/go cold nearly instantaneously over there. So this link is provided only for temporal reference.



Editors (so called), wire services, photogs, writers, can all accept blame. And even Stephan Pastis and Darby Conley of late, cannot hide their juvenile political stripes. Oh so sadly unable to refrain from taking swipes. Making the cartoon page now unreadable as well.

So long, bye bye, was good to know ya .... long live the blogosphere.



Friday, November 2

Zzzzzzz, Zzzzzzz, Zzzzzzz


Even Harvard Finds The Media Biased

a joint survey by the Project for Excellence ... and Harvard's Shorenstein Center ... found that in covering the current presidential race, the media are sympathetic to Democrats and hostile to Republicans.

Democrats are not only favored in the tone of the coverage. They get more coverage period. This is particularly evident on morning news shows, which "produced almost twice as many stories (51% to 27%) focused on Democratic candidates than on Republicans."

The most flagrant bias, however, was found in newspapers. In reviewing front-page coverage in 11 newspapers, the study found the tone positive in nearly six times as many stories about Democrats as it was negative.

Breaking it down by candidates, the survey found that Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the favorites. "Obama's front page coverage was 70% positive and 9% negative, and Clinton's was similarly 61% positive and 13% negative."

In stories about Republicans, on the other hand, the tone was positive in only a quarter of the stories; in four in 10 it was negative.



Zzzzzz, Zzzzzz, Zzzzzzz

Circulation Declines, Some Steep

According to industry sources ... daily circulation for reporting papers in the six-month ... period ending September, is down about 2.5% while Sunday is expected to fall 3.5%. Those types of declines ... have been occurring as far back as ... March 2005 ...

... Several major papers have suffered declines in daily circulation of over 7% ... The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's circulation fell about 9% ...



AP urges news industry to embrace online

NEW YORK - Tom Curley, CEO of The Associated Press, called on news executives Thursday to "stop pining" for the past and adapt to the new ways that news is being distributed and consumed.

At the same time, Curley said news organizations were partly to blame for the troubles they are experiencing in adapting to the new realities of the news business being wrought by the explosion of Internet use.


The jokes just write themselves (hint Tom, there's a Hollywood writer's strike approaching). Nevvah read McLuhan (say it isn't so Elmo). But Tom you precious thing you, it ain't the medium (bwahahahahahahaha)!

[Last three links/adds via Drudge].



Wednesday, November 14

The End is Nigh


GAUHATI, India (AP) - In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India.

(also via Drudge)


Wednesday, November 21

Brokaw: Washington Post Print Paper 'Probably' Dead in 10 Years


“I was at The Washington Post earlier today,” Brokaw said. “And in the lobby they’ve got a wonderful graphic describing how the printing press works and where it is … 75,000 copies an hour it can turn out. Its last run is at 2:15 in the morning .... and I looked at all that and I thought – ‘Ten years from now, will it be here?’ .... if you would do a hardcore analysis – probably not."

However, Brokaw said there will still be a demand for journalists to interpret information ("It’ll be probably digital 10 years from now”). “There will never not be a need for professional people to take complicated information, put it into a form that viewers and readers will need to know and want to understand,” he said.


Right Tom, it just won't be any of those stanky partisan hacks at the WaPo (or the NYT's, or the L.A. Times, or .....). And, to borry a lil from Arch Oboler (if I may) Tom: It...is...later...than...you...think.


Saturday, December 15

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The New York Post gives us this (ever so lovely) header, for their Reuters' penned obit. And the Daily Swarm (generously) titles their optical scan of the resultant print article:Tasteless.

Myself, see it simply as that one singular, defining moment. Of finality. Of the atomic press.

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Taps

[Quicktime audio console, wav file (instant load, thirty second duration)].