Cutting Off Your News To Spite Your Face

[bijou]

By Debra Saunders

A couple of years ago, when speaking to a local group, I mentioned that The Chronicle was losing money. A couple in the back of the room rudely applauded. How thrilled those two must have felt when -- if -- they learned of San Francisco Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega's announcement Tuesday that the Hearst Corp. will implement "significant" workforce cuts. If the cuts don't pay off, then the Hearst Corp. will "offer the newspaper for sale or close it altogether."

Bloggers and e-mailers are crowing. If The Chronicle is shuttered, they'll be dancing a jig. Many conservatives feel a warm glow at the possible demise of an institution that they believe to be failing because of liberal bias. On the far left, that same glow will satisfy those who think newspapers are not liberal enough.

 As for those who only read their news online, here's a news flash: News stories do not sprout up like Jack's beanstalk on the Internet. To produce news, you need professionals who understand the standards needed to research, report and write on what happened. If newspapers die, reliable information dries up.

Reduced ad revenue and falling newspaper circulation mean that there will be fewer people to cover the same number of stories. In the middle of an economic crisis and President Obama's federal spending bonanza, there will be fewer watchdogs to guard the shop.

So, to those of you who argue that the demise of liberal newspapers (The Chronicle in particular) is deserved, I offer a caveat: Be careful what you wish for.

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link

Smell the fear of the MSM.

[Chris_]

Meh....the same story here with the Kansas City (red) Star......stock was just delisted when it fell to 0.67 per share......if they don't report the unbiased truth, who needs them.....

doc

[The Village Idiot]

Meh....the same story here with the Kansas City (red) Star......stock was just delisted when it fell to 0.67 per share......if they don't report the unbiased truth, who needs them.....

doc

I already left a comment at FR.

Newspapers do not offer reliable info. They are not watchdogs of O. They are leghumpers.

[franksolich]

As for those who only read their news online, here's a news flash: News stories do not sprout up like Jack's beanstalk on the Internet. To produce news, you need professionals who understand the standards needed to research, report and write on what happened.

Well, yes, that's very true, and that's something that bothers me about the demise of the print media.

If newspapers die, reliable information dries up.

I'm however not so sure about that; contemporary newspapers haven't been providing us with reliable information, it seems, since the late 1950s, when reporters stopped reporting the news and concentrated upon the personalities, such as the obsessive fixation with idolizing the Kennedys.

And then when reporters started becoming "celebrities" themselves, it got worse.

So, to those of you who argue that the demise of liberal newspapers (The Chronicle in particular) is deserved, I offer a caveat: Be careful what you wish for.

Of course.  One should always be careful.

But damn, it's the print media's own fault.

[The Village Idiot]

But damn, it's the print media's own fault.

right on. I would h5 you but you own the place.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Well, if the 'watchdogs' would stop selling the ****ing chickens they're supposed to be protecting to the wolves, and then bragging about how many they saved and how brave and cunning the wolves are, I might be a little more sympathetic about it.  But getting shot is the fare of bad, useless, or thieving watchdogs. 

[The Village Idiot]

Well, if the 'watchdogs' would stop selling the ******* chickens they're supposed to be protecting to the wolves, and then bragging about how many they saved and how brave and cunning the wolves are, I might be a little more sympathetic about it.  But getting shot is the fare of bad, useless, or thieving watchdogs. 

someone should post this, at least partially. we should all watch the video report.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/Investigation_Homeowners_Hell

[NHSparky]

To produce news, you need professionals who understand the standards needed to research, report and write on what happened.

And when J-schools start making those same professionals instead of liberal acolytes, then you might see a reversal of the downward spiral of the MSM.  What you know of standards can be summarized in Das Kapital.

[Chris_]

Meh....the same story here with the Kansas City (red) Star......stock was just delisted when it fell to 0.67 per share......if they don't report the unbiased truth, who needs them.....

doc

The Rocky Mountain Spews will be publishing it's last edition in Denver tomorrow morning.  The broadcast propaganda networks have been whining and crying about it all day today.   

[Jim]

hard to feel badly for the papers, they made their own suicide.