Comments

1. 

   Anonymous

   January 14, 2008

   “The future of civilization depends on fewer people, less consumption per capita and thus a smaller ecological footprint.”

   Great plan. Let’s kill a bunch of people and tell the ones who are left they can’t have as much stuff, and the stuff they have has to be green.

   That’s really civilized.

   RH

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2. 

   Anonymous

   January 14, 2008

   As a journalist for the past 34 years, I believe I have a slight concept of what the industry is like, but it sure isn’t anything that I can decipher from E.M.Risse’s latest lecture.

   I don’t have the time to go over his many points, but here is just one. Consider his statement:

   “Most of the Flagship MainStream Media outlets are Regional newspapers. The most prominent ones serve the largest New Urban Regions – New York, Los Angles, Chicago, Washington-Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay and Dallas-Fort Worth.”

   Let’s go through that:

   In New York, the best newspapers, the Times and Journal, serve far, far beyond what Risse calls the New Urban Region of New York.

   True perhaps for L.A. and Chicago.

   In Washington, the Post is national, not regional, and the the Baltimore Sun is a shell of its former self.

   In Philadelphia, the once-great Inquirer is a ghost of its past post Knight-Ridder’s demise.

   Ditto San Francisco. The Chronicle barely exists. I guess the Examainer is still “prominent” as is the San Jose paper and the Oakland one.

   Don’t know that much about Dallas except that it ceased being a hot newspaper town back in the late 1980s.

   I’m no expert on land use. Perhaps EMR should stop pretending he’s an expert on the media.

   Peter Galuszka

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3. 

   Anonymous

   January 14, 2008

   Peter, how much of the newspaper industry’s problem stems from the fact that most journalists write solely from their own “ideological beliefs”?

   The U.S. is a diverse nation politically. There are sizable groups of thoughtful liberals, conservatives and others in the middle. Yet, despite the rhetoric, most big newspaper articles come from the white, liberal perspective. That’s certainly a legitimate view, but far from the only one. Take a look at the WaPo, virtually every article supports bigger and more expensive government.

   A proposal for more taxes and spending is given a free pass from analysis. Where, for example, was the WaPo when Mark Warner and the General Assembly were developing the 2004 tax increases that were coupled with minor (indeed, insulting) increases in state aid for most NoVA districts? Silent, of course.

   Where is the WaPo on the Dulles Rail boondoggle, which will surely result in program cuts as cost overruns hit local budgets? Cheering it on, of course.

   The newspaper industry spends too much time writing for itself and too little writing for the market of consumers.

   Any comments would be welcomed.

   TMT

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4. 

   Anonymous

   January 14, 2008

   TMT,
   You are right that a lot of journalists, myself included, may be Liberals (and proud of it). But I argue that the preponderance of opinion (at least in print) isn’t all that leftie. The WashPost’s editorial page is a lot more moderate than many would admit. And most of the corporatized outfits that have unfortunately taken the press to its low levels that Risse rightly notes are actually fairly conservative — or, at least, inoffesnviely status quo. The days of the 60s and 70s when some of the more powerful elements of the press assumed an advocacy role are long, long over.
   I see the media has having gone through many iterations, from the printing press ro the telegraph, to tabloid competition, to magazines, to radio, to tv and the Net. Each change brought on great turmoil and lost fortune but it always morphed into something else that (more or less) served its purpose — informing the public. This is my big complaint with Risse. He seems to think that what is happening now is some kind of earth change, when it is really a momentary loss of footing.
   And as for you TMT, I know what you are saying and recognize that it is a common complaint. My view is that the media is too conservative, not too liberal.

   Peter Galuszka

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5. 

   Anonymous

   January 15, 2008

   Peter – Just as people’s views vary, so should the media. We need good liberals like you in the press, but we need some other perspectives also.

   Years ago, I wrote a strategy paper suggesting that a conservative news network would be successful. Not because it has all the truth, but because the liberal MSM doesn’t have all the truth either. The business I wrote the paper for pooh-poohed my analysis. But then someone else — Fox did it — without my help, of course. Why wouldn’t the same strategy work in other media too?

   The WaPo simply will not report on anything that challenges more spending and higher taxes. It won’t investigate anyone who supports those positions either. I was talking with a WaPo reporter several months ago. I asked why no stories on Kaine’s connection to West Group and his support for Dulles Rail. The reporter told me that the “Third Floor” spiked a number of stories. Kaine is not to written about critically. Contrast the Macaca stories! Both were news, but only one gets reported.

   This is not good journalism. There are important untold stories about the relationship between elected officials (quite a few who are Democrats) and the big Tysons Corner landowners that will not be reported by the Post.

   I would tend to agree with you that we’ll always have journalists. We might not always have newspapers though.

   TMT

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