A subject I don’t talk about often but follow closely is Newspapers. For those of you not following, Newspapers are dying. I personally find this a tragedy. Now I don’t think we ought to be bailing out the Newspapers like some in the Congress are suggesting. There is an idea going around Congress that we should allow Newspapers to operate as a non-profit for tax purposes and thus take out their ability to endorse political candidates. I do not favor this because Newspapers are not non-biased. I don’t like the idea of a newspaper saying they can’t endorse at all. The myth of newspapers is that they are un-biased.
I love the New York Times. It is one of the best papers in America today (yes, you read that right my fellow conservative friends). They gather news well and they are focused on their goal, getting the news first. They are also solidly biased to the left. I know this when I read it. If someone only read the NYT, they would be getting a distorted view on the world. The people who work their naturally have their biases seep in to what they choose to cover and how they write about it. Still, I want to make clear that they don’t try to slant the news to the left (not talking Op-ed page), it just comes through from their view of the world.
No matter what you think of newspapers, the truth is clear. Less and less people subscribe to them. I currently get one Newspaper which I will not be renewing, Investors Business Daily. (Which is a very Right leaning paper, like most Business papers) In a hard economy, I am looking for places to cut in my budget and this makes natural sense. The truth is though that Newspapers do something critical, which is they gather news. Many people say that bloggers will replace Newspapers. This is not the case. Bloggers can’t replace newspapers because bloggers have their own jobs. Even those bloggers who are successful enough to make it their job are not the same thing as a news organization.
Newspapers will have to change to an online outfit, which they are doing now. Again, the New York Times website is very, very well done. Another of my favorites is the LA Times, which is a good conservative paper, unlike the joke Washington Times. Newspaper medium will change, but their purpose will not.
So what about Bloggers? I think they are a very good thing. Remember this key line by Robert Di Nero in Casino:
In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all.
The Bloggers are the eye in the sky. They call out when the media screws up. They can also make news themselves, as they watch us all. Still, there will always be a place for organizations who make a living following news. Now they just got that eye watching them. Remember Dan Rather?
