Obama and Saving Newspapers

Next on the bailout agenda is the bailout of newspapers. I was framing a blog in my mind about the issue when I came across the article below by Michael Reagan. He pretty much touches on most of the points I was going to include, but you know I still have to expound, pontificate, blather a little bit...

The world of the news is changing. We're going through a shift that is rather like the industrial revolution and every other change that has occurred due to new innovations. People are in the process, especially the "next generation", of moving from the printed page to the Internet. (To my green friends: isn't that better than killing trees and wasting energy for printing, etc., etc.). I think we'll always love the printed word on paper, but maybe that's just 'cause I love to curl up on the couch with a good book. I'll have to admit that I get all, very bit, of my news from the Internet though.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of revenue making abilities on the Internet... yet... (although we're doing pretty well most days at the Fayette Front Page, Georgia Front Page and Arts Across Georgia ;-). It'll come. At least it'll happen as long as government keeps their mitts out and allows the free market to do its thing. (side note: check out the "net neutrality" issue)

One surprising fact, or not so surprising if you lean conservative, that Mr. Obama always seems to overlook is that the more conservative leaning news print vehicles are actually thriving. Ditto on television. The failing big-guy newspapers aren't paying much attention. They'd rather go down with their bias than survive I suppose... well, guess they're not going down as long as the President is willing to bail them out, huh?

One big issue for me, aside from throwing our tax dollars at yet another business that can't hold its own, is the so-called "freedom of press" issue. We've seen the President and pals meddle overmuch in the auto industry, the banking industry and they're worming their way into other businesses and industries as I type. What happens to the writing at a newspaper when their very existence depends on government hand-outs? Ya think they're going to print the "party line" or the facts if they hurt their chances of hanging onto those federal dollars?

I don't like where we're heading in this country. I don't like big government, it's become "The Blob" from that old Steve McQueen movie. It's growing and it's going to take a lot to freeze it, then shrink it. Probably not the best analogy as I don't really think it needs to be killed, just reformed. Hmmm, maybe I'll write a script for a Blob movie remake where the hero converts it, saves it, fixes it and it does good works... Yep, I went from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous, a bad analogy is just a bad analogy and their ain't no fixin' it. Hey, if you saw the remake of "The Blob" my idea for a new story-line has to be a heck of a lot better .

Newspaper Profitability -- Is it Critical to our Democracy?
by Michael Reagan
Today, as you read this column in your favorite newspaper, I hope that you can appreciate the irony of where I am choosing to voice my opposition to President Obama's expressed "happiness" to look at proposals to provide federal funding to help "rescue" the struggling print segment of the Fourth Estate. Just what we need.more of our tax dollars going to pick and choose segments of the public sector that the administration deems worthy of assistance.
http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelReagan/2009/09/23/newspaper_profitability_--_is_it_critical_to_our_democracy

More on newspaper / media failures

Yesterday I posted a release from ALIPAC regarding problems with newspapers and mainstream media. I'm not going to bore you with a recap, just scan down and you'll see the post if you haven't already.

I wanted to share another article on the same subject that I received this morning. The following is from the Christian Science Monitor:

Newspapers' troubles escalate in recession
Quest intensifies for new revenue streams, but solutions aren't in time to save some.

It's the worst of times for the newspaper industry, and it's not the best time, either, for finding solutions amid a crisis of downsizings, bankruptcies, and closings.

The steep recession, on top of a fundamental shift of readers from print newspapers to the Internet, has caused local papers' ad revenues to fall off a cliff. The Tucson Citizen is the latest to announce it will stop publishing if a buyer isn't found by March 21.

Plenty of ideas exist to develop new streams of revenue for the news business, such as a micropayment system like iTunes for a nickel-a-click read of an article or the creation of nonprofit news organizations to fulfill the traditional role of the fourth estate.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0317/p02s01-usec.html

ALIPAC: Dying Newspapers Dying Nation: Repent or Perish

Some interesting points in this press release. I think the newspaper / media industry is being affected by a number of factors, one being the rise of the Internet, but I certainly feel that the lack of quality reporting and obvious media bias is a huge factor in the decline.

We don't have any real investigative reporters these days who seem to go into a project with an open mind. It seems they start with a preconceived notion and look to find information to support their beliefs.

Gheen points out that many of his group's comments are taken out of context. We've seen a prime example of that one in recent days with the attacks on Rush Limbaugh. Whether you like him or not, the comment he made regarding wanting Obama to fail was completely twisted, taken out of context and used to ignite a frenzy. If you read the newspapers and watch mainstream TV, they fanned the fire knowing that the meaning changed completely when taken in context.

Ah well, I would need to write an entire book to adequately delve into the problems with our news media.

Dying Newspapers Dying Nation: Repent or Perish
by William Gheen
www.alipac.us
President, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC)

March 13, 2009

From the New York Times to the Raleigh News and Observer, there are For Sale signs hanging on the doors of prominent newspapers across America with only a few buyers at hand.

While this must be very stressful for newspaper employees, editors and reporters alike, a large consensus of American citizens are waving and saying "goodbye and good riddance!".

Public trust for the contents of the American print media has reached all time lows. Most Americans who still read these papers have become adept at discerning the truth of what is happening by what is either distorted by the papers or what facts and perspectives are completely missing from articles like large elephants in the room.

Reading between the lines is what news consumers have been forced to do, as the ethics of journalism have been abandoned and many major print media institutions have become more concerned with attempts to politically indoctrinate their readers to fairly unsupported views, instead of telling readers what is really going on in our nation.

You can trust my word on this, because I am a man who is lucky to even be quoted before at all in publications like the LA Times, New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Chicago Tribune.

While the Washington Times stands alone, with their fair treatment of my positions in favor of more border security and immigration enforcement, almost every one of these other publications have abused me, my positions, and the truth!

If you do see a quote from me, the chances are higher than 50% that I've been intentionally misquoted by a reporter working for a newspaper that favors amnesty for illegal aliens. If you are lucky enough to even have an opportunity to hear my view, which is representative of the vast majority of Americans on immigration issues, you can usually find my quote just past the half way mark in any article, which has been determined to be the part of the article people are least likely to read or remember.

My opposition, those who favor amnesty for illegal aliens and open borders, will usually be found in the first and last of the article, which are the prime locations for quotes. I am lucky if the article quotes less than five opposition sources compared to my single doctored comment.

These are the least of the offenses offered by many of these publications, which now flagrantly try to portray me or any American who speaks out against illegal immigration as using some kind of "code words of hate", which mere exposure to these mythical codes could cause the American peasant class to lash out and harm blacks and Hispanics. While these outlandish attacks on free speech are ridiculous, they have traction in the land of unicorns and fairies in the newsrooms, where creative writers manufacture synthetic realities like a movie script.

These newspaper writers are taking their extreme left marching orders from low credibility political groups like the Anti Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Both of these groups have exchanged their prior credibility fighting racist groups, by overtly lying and defaming any American who speaks out against Amnesty or illegal immigration. They have labeled legal immigrants, blacks, Hispanics, and white Americans working together for border security 'nativist extremists' or the new KKK! Their lies and distortions have become so overt that many of us now call them the Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Lie Center.

In effect, these highly biased newspapers and the SPLC and ADL are engaging in rampant anti-immigrant behavior by equating legal immigrants with illegal aliens. My legal immigrant supporters are highly offended by this. Can you imagine the outcry, if a newspaper constantly compared tax cheats to law abiding tax payers or rapists to married couples trying to conceive a child?

These papers and these defamation groups are also engaging in racist behavior by attacking multi-racial groups that support immigration enforcement and falsely labeling them as hate groups! For political expedience, the papers and crew are equating illegal aliens with all Hispanics, even though half of the Hispanics in America are here legally. Can you imagine the outcry, if a newspaper compared drug dealers to black people or shop lifters to Hispanics? Only with the crime of illegally entering the US can we find the racist comparison between criminal actions and a particular ethnic group.

The bottom line here is that the newspapers are massively abusing the ethics of journalism and their important role in the health of the American Republic for which our flag stands.

Gone are the days of true investigative journalism, as any ramped up news story has, to pass through intensive Political Correctness filters creating a world where every child in America has heard of the Duke LaCross Team, but not even one newspaper in North Carolina will mention the more than four documented and horrific gang rapes of innocent Americans by illegal aliens in the last few years.

The real gang rapes are suppressed and censored information because it might alarm the natives and the public might seek political change towards more immigration enforcement and border security. The Duke LaCross fiction novel was big news because it fits the story cliche that white people, especially wealthy white people are the cause of all of society's ills. Racial equality concerns have given way to racist one way streets in the modern print media. Of course, the Duke LaCross fiction story had to go out of the limelight immediately once the abused college students were exonerated.

The real problem with the newspapers goes far deeper than racial issues or even top political issues like illegal immigration.

The real problem with the American print media is with the truth. Many of them have sacrificed the truth at the altar of politics and engaged in unethical behavior to conceal the truth, while propagating lies. The results are manifest in our nation, and the results are a key reason America is in so much trouble and experiencing so much hardship today.

The same lack of integrity, the same lack of principles, the same disconnect from the American public, and the same greed and political corruption that infects Washington, DC is pandemic in the newsrooms and offices of the editors.

The newspapers have been lying to their readers by crafting political propaganda so thick that there should be a "paid for by" disclaimer beneath the articles as campaigns for public office are required to provide. I wonder if the Federal Elections Commission could handle the extra work load of regulating these paid political writers at the papers?

There's lots of talk in Washington, DC of regulating free speech on talk radio shows and the Internet. Could it be any more overt that corrupt politicians in DC are trying to protect their corrupt political advertisers in the print media? If we needed any regulation of free paid political speech in America, which I do not approve of, it should start with the newspapers.

Vox populi vox Dei

After all, Internet news, blogs, and talk radio shows have rapidly growing and loyal audiences. This is because Americans are getting more accurate information via these mediums and if there is a political slant to the coverage at least it is overt and not masquerading as fair and balanced, as the newspapers claim.

I would bet you my left kidney that four out of five of these politically biased lying newspapers would all support a clamp down on talk radio and the Internet. They are elitists and espouse the elitist view that it is their job to determine what is news worthy to Americans, not the other way around.

They are top down operations who believe what they write that will cause life to imitate their art. Most American citizens feel their art should imitate true life instead! Just ask Harrison Ford. His new movie "Crossing Over" is a pro-amnesty for illegal aliens propaganda film that labels our Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers 'Gestapo'. The movie has completely bombed in the reviews and the theaters because of the movie's overt politics. Now, if Harrison Ford's new movie paid tribute to our brave ICE officers who put their lives at risk to apprehend illegal aliens and deport them, it would likely be a smash hit at the box office, instead of Ford's career ending with a whimper.

Many of these newspapers could be saved, rebuild trust, rebuild loyal audiences and loyal advertisers by firing large volumes of their staff members with liberal arts degrees and hiring realists with a more diverse range of political views and a more diverse range of educational backgrounds.

Many of these creative fiction writers at the papers need a new job, preferably one where they have to compete with illegal aliens and at illegal alien wage levels.

It is time to swim or drown, shake the tree and let the loose nuts and fruits fall to the ground! You need writers and employees who write for the American public, instead of global corporations and unpopular social engineering political views! Take two doses of populism and call me in five years!

These newspaper owners should go through the editorial staff and news rooms and fire every person who has ever written the phrase "undocumented immigrants", "jobs Americans won't do", "Comprehensive Immigration Reform". "Anna Nicole Smith", "Lindsay Lohan", or "Paris Hilton" in a news or opinion article!

Furthermore, don't just fire these fiction writers, dress them in clothing adorned with American flags and drop them off deep in a neighborhood in America controlled by MS-13 or SUR-13, or drop them off in Nuevo Laredo or Juarez, Mexico in their American attire. If they survive, they may come out of the experience with a hefty dose of reality from the tough streets of reality!

These papers can find plenty of new workers down in the soup kitchens at the churches or in the car lots and tent cities, where innocent American families have been cast. Grab some people who can write truthful articles from the perspective of average American citizens who are concerned and suffering and give them a week to write something readers like and appreciate.

The true political battle in America now is between the truth and the lies. This is a battle between right and wrong, good and evil, principles vs. corruption!

If civil engineers designed politically correct bridges they would collapse and when doctors lie, people die.

Only the truth and God, manifest in American citizens, can save America now as the atrophy of America's Judeo Christian values and principles has brought our nation to the verge of collapse and ruin. The Ten Commandments would serve these papers well, you know the parts about not lying about your neighbors and not placing other idols before God. From my intensive experiences with the newsrooms of America, I can tell you that my brief mention of God here will result in some discomfort among many in the newsrooms, and hopefully no explosive vulgarity or backwards Latin. Mentioning God in a classroom or newsroom could easily result into an inquiry these days.

These newspapers can be saved by hiring writers who have shared values with the American public, instead of elitists values shared by only a small percentage of the public. And by shared values, I do not mean the recent multiculturalist, Globalist, and radicalism we face today in America. I mean the shared values that have been prominent and dominant in America for the last 200 years!

We get enough political fiction out of Hollywood and the corporate TV commercial industry today, so let's start by returning the truth, in preference to fiction in our newspapers and some may be able to survive.

For those who fail to heed this advice, let those newspapers disappear from our land. I've been warning them for several years now that the New York Times, the Raleigh News and Observer, and others are like dinosaurs breathing their last gasps of comet dust. America would be better off without many of these destructive giants that fail to see they are no longer the top of the information food chain.

It is time to adapt or fail and adapting means newspapers need to become more like talk radio and more connected to and representative of the people of America like Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, and Glenn Beck and others in talk radio, Internet news, and on TV who represent Americans better than newspapers or lifetime politicians in Washington, DC.

Abandon the corrupt and dishonorable methods and practices that have fostered the recent failures in America, and return to the principles and values that once made America the most free, opulent, and successful society in human history. Adapt or fail, improve or perish, this is the challenge for all of America.

Scattered thoughts on politics

How do newspapers and other media avoid duplicate headlines?

Have you ever wondered about news headlines? Do the newspapers check to avoid duplicate headlines? Think about the number of newspaper, radio, bloggers, television and other types of reporters following around the presidential candidates.

There are reporters from almost every country in the world following the candidates on their trek around the country for votes.

They all see the same thing, then have to file a story back home wherever that may be. So how do they avoid duplicating headlines? How many ways are there to say "He won, she lost"?

If I really cared enough I'd look into it, maybe do a search on the Internet popping in the title or the question. It's not high on my list of things to do, but I have wondered. Maybe someone out there in the web-world will read this and let me know!

How do the candidates manage to keep up?

I've heard them talking about their schedules. As a media member I get some of their appearance schedules. They are moving 20 hours a day for days on end. They go from campaign event to campaign event, to interview, to bus, to airplane, to event, to shake hands, to eat... and eat and eat and ear... did anyone else noticed that Huckabee looked like he was gaining a few pounds again for a while?

I can't go through the day without at least 5 hours of sleep and I really need more. I can live on the 5 hours a day for a few days, but then I have to sleep long or I start talking gibberish. The candidates have to be on their toes for Letterman, Leno, Fox News, debates and events 24/7. They're all older than I am and they run circles around me.

No wonder they all look ten years older by the time the race is over!

What happens to all the stuff the candidates are given?

I saw a clip of Romney last night holding a big box of Krispy Kreme donuts. He was offering them around to the crowd. Betcha he doesn't eat 'em. I've heard he's rather picky about what he puts in his body. I imagine the candidates are given a ton of things from supporters and they have to find a way to graciously decline the offer or act like they love whatever it is. Some votes are lost by something so simple.

So what happens to all the little knicknacks, food, gifts, Bibles, resumes , and other things that are given to the candidates? Do they offer then to their supporters? Hold a bonfire when the campaign ends without a win? Pack them up and give them to charity?

I have a whole list of things I wonder about when it comes to candidates. Mostly I wonder how truthful they're being, whether they'll be the best person to run our country and who I'll finally end up voting for in February these days.

Bloggers, Newspapers, Bias VS Facts

I rarely read the blogs on the local newspaper site. Seems to me a lot of people with axes to grind (some of them pretty strange axes) and very little real factual (or even vaguely correct) information like to spout off about every and anything. How do they find the time? Better yet, why do they make the time?

Anyway, I did look at one the other day. I have a standing Google search on a variety of names and issues, one came in, I clicked the link and ended up on a page of bloggers. One person (anonymous as always… theses folks are so brave hiding behind their pseudonyms!) must have kept an on-going newspaper clipping file on County Bill McNally for years. He (or she, but probably he since he used a John Wayne photo) had this long litany of grievances against Bill.

I quickly scanned through his looonnnngggg list of issues and grievances. Guess what, from what I could see without intense dissection, he lifted every bit of information from the newspapers! Now that’s real research. We all know how accurate the news is and how they research in great detail all of their news stories and they don’t have an ax of their own to grind and their’s no bias and, and, and… did you happen to catch any sarcasm when you read all that blather?

I’d venture to guess that at least 90% of the people who regularly share their opinions about the County Commission or folks like Bill have never been to a County Commission meeting (or at least not more than one or two times), that they’ve never done an open records request for data, and they’ve never really taken the time to talk to the people they write about. Or, if they have taken time to talk to whoever they’re trashing, it’s been at some public meeting where the majority of the time they threw their opinions at the Commissioner.

John Wayne seemed to have a personal problem with Bill. Maybe the blogger is an attorney who lost a case to him, or there’s professional jealousy, or he works with the Sheriff’s office or maybe he’s just a “concerned” citizen with a lot of time on their hands who collects stories about public officials and those who work for the government, or maybe he’s a friend of one of the Commissioners who canned McNally. Doesn’t matter. He, the John Wayne wannabe, isn’t the point of my blog.

The fact that someone, anyone, would use newspaper stories as a basis for their opinion or to substantiate an opinion is what led me to write this column.

No one, absolutely no one, should trust what’s written in a newspaper.

There is bias. No matter how hard a person tries they dislike or like whoever they’re writing about, they have preconceived notions about whatever issue they’re covering, or they dislike or like some action. It’s virtually impossible not to let their bias, pro or con, shape whatever is being written.

Editors and publishers love to write their opinions. The vast majority of time they don’t walk outside their office doors. They wait for those with a stake in whatever issue is hot to bring them information. If only one side brings information then that’s all they know aside from the meager dregs brought in by their reporters.

The length and depth of information contained in articles in newspapers is money driven. Not saying they’re taking money, absolutely not. However, the number of pages printed is based on the amount of advertising dollars obtained. Light advertising week, less space. There’s a bottom-line factor involved in how much time a reporter can give to researching an article. Advertising dollars have to cover their salaries also. Hot issues sell papers (well, that’s not a biggie with most local papers since they’re free to most). However, hot issues do ensure that people will actually open the newspaper. And it attracts the bloggers, gets your hits up on the Internet and helps to sell advertising.

Most reporters are facing deadlines and are short on time. It’s a rare breed who will take the time to go sit in a Commissioners office and ask questions. The only reporter in my history of reporting in this County who ever took the time to really research a story sadly died some years back. Dave Hamrick was a true news reporter in the finest sense. He rode my back about making sure I got both sides, that I had done my homework. I lost money on every story I ever freelanced with his paper trying to get the full background and information on my stories. I still have emails from him where he gave suggestions, pointed out flaws and occasionally made my day with a bit of praise. I still miss him.

I also have to give kudos to Ben Nelms while thinking about good reporting. Ben sank his teeth into the problem on the north end of the county regarding what has become known as the “onion odor issue” and still hasn’t let go. He’s really done some superb research and hung in there. The few times he and I have covered the same story he’s always seemed to be well informed and to have done his homework.

I’ve interviewed many folks in concert with other reporters. It always amazes me how little reporters know as they pepper individuals with questions. They don’t have time and most don’t have that extra fire that is necessary to make sure they get the entire story. Quick headline, quick story, move onto another story…

Lots of sidetracking in this opinion column! Bottom line point I hope I made is… don’t trust what you read in the newspaper and don’t trust anyone’s so-called documentation if it’s based on newspaper articles.