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Brilliant!
It’s what I’ve been trying to say for months, although my thoughts extend to all the so-called professional media, not just newspapers.
Oh, my lord, yes! And not just because I work for a newspaper. If I have to see one more letter or online comment on our site about Pizzagate, I swear …
I can’t tell you how glad I am to be retired and out of the business.
(And I confess I’m so out of touch, I had to go look up Pizzagate …)
The sad thing is that this applies world wide!
I do look to The Guardian for a bit more objective take on our politics, but that’s about it.
Sadly I gave up our print newspaper – bad spelling, poorly written sentences, cut and paste stories that cut badly (I guess they figured no one really read the whole article), and then they ran one story in 2 places in the same issue…and again about 2 weeks later (Guess they needed a filler)
It was pretty much getting into scandals and magazine type writing anyway.
Sad.
I gave up on my print paper about 5 years ago. Got tired of trying to dry out soaking wet papers (fished out of the street instead of off my porch) before I could read. And it’s all online now anyway.
And the access to papers outside of the local scene and country – so much wider view available now. Not to mention how interesting it is to read opinions and versions of events seen from that viewpoint.
We gave up ours about the same time – another reason was that the delivery depended on how the carrier felt that morning apparently – it’s not like they face snow or ice storms here.
“Home delivery” here consists of some guy driving by tossing papers out his car window. Regardless of weather. For the first time in decades I have a real covered front porch, and if the carriers can’t/won’t put the paper on my porch, they can keep it. I miss the hard-working kids on bicycles that you probably knew by name and who put the paper wherever you asked. (Guess that dats me, huh?)
Back when customers were to be cherished and were always right. (Funny how the newspapers still ask for carrier “tips” around the holidays even if the service is sporatic or badly handled)
Back when the service was really good, I voluntarily tipped. Also tipped the mail carrier — back when he or she brought everything to my door. Now it’s all left at a bank of “community mailboxes” a block away. But for the record, I think asking outright for tips is pretty low class.
Down here in the buckle of the bible belt our local paper, the Joplin Globe, is somehow still chugging along with high standards and original local reporting. It doesn’t hurt that it has had the same editor for some decades (a woman, PT). Its strength might also be found in our community’s modest size, 50,000 in town where some 200,000 shop regularly. Stories are often about places and people I’m familiar with. I’m sure its circulation is in decline but I’m one of the dinosaurs holding on. It now concentrates on local news with selected national and international articles on the inside.
They need to focus on local news. It’s their niche. They can try to do national and international, but by the time they get it out, you will have already seen it on TV or the internet. Same goes for local TV news. They need to stick to local news. National news will be hours or days old and they’ll just be repeating what their national networks have already reported.
P.S. I was raised on the idea that Oklahoma was the buckle on the Bible Belt.
sigh
Those were the days …
I take our local newspaper on line. Really like it because I can download and archive specific articles and graphics important to me. I have always thought the movie “All the President’s Men” was a great reflection of what went into the making of trusted journalism.
Woodward and Bernstein did themselves and their profession proud. I wish I felt confident that we had similar journalists working on our behalf now.
FYI
Forgot to check Notify.
No problem.
A lot of lessons were learned. Too late. And polling as it exists today has got to go. Respondents, if and when you can reach them, are self-selecting. I mean, who answers a call from a pollster? And do they answer honestly? And given all the types of media we have, how to you reach a large, broad, representative audience to poll? Poll results may be interesting, but I don’t trust them as fact and they shouldn’t be reported as such.
Journalists (if there are any left out there) need to get back to the business of reporting the news (double- and triple-checked facts!), accurately and impartially, in a timely manner. Editorials/opinion should be clearly identified as such. Given what the MSM were doing (or not doing), is it any wonder people started looking elsewhere for news? Too bad a lot of them weren’t smart enough to identify and avoid “fake news” sites. (I didn’t see any of those because I don’t frequent Facebook.)
What with fake news, highly biased journalism and satire, it is pretty hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.
I try to read/watch a variety of long-respected sources. They’re all showing biases of one kind or another, but they’re still better than sites you’ve never heard of before or those you know indulge in yellow journalism.