Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

The Sucking Sounds Gets Louder

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by

James A. Bacon
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by James A. Bacon

Six Virginia newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises — the Bristol Herald Courier, the (Charlottesville) Daily Progress, the (Culpeper) Star-Exponent, the (Danville) Register & Bee, the Martinsville Bulletin, and the (Waynesboro) News Virginian — will begin publishing “expanded” print editions three days a week and deliver them by postal mail rather than using traditional newspaper carriers, reports Cardinal News… a digital publication.

How long until the Richmond, Norfolk, and Roanoke newspapers are reduced to three days a week?

Lee Enterprises, I’m quite certain, knew this day was coming. The corporation’s business plan is to suck out enough money from their stable of failing newspapers to recoup its original bargain-basement investment plus a decent return on its capital. After tri-weekly status comes weekly, then Internet only. When that, too, fails, it’s all she wrote.

Actually, we all knew this day was coming — we just didn’t know how long it would take to get here. The perennial question is this: who will report the news, if not commercial enterprises?

For-profit businesses always had their drawbacks. They were highly motivated to suck up to advertisers… or at least the big ones. But journalistic ethics dictated that a Chinese wall be maintained between news and advertising operations and, for the most part, the resulting news could be trusted. Sure, individual journalists or newsrooms had agendas on particular stories, but they maintained a semblance of balance and objectivity in most of their reporting.

People have to get their news from somewhere. Rest assured that the vacuum will be filled. What will the news look like then? Ruling Class Media (The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, network broadcasting, cable TV, etc.) will support the partisan and ideological narratives of America’s cultural elites. The alternative appears to be unchecked rumor-mongering on social media filtered by someone’s invisible algorithm.

Which is worse? It’s like the old game: would you rather… have a giant splinter jammed up your fingernail or…. find out your steady girl is sleeping with your best friend?

This cannot possibly end well.

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12 responses to “The Sucking Sounds Gets Louder”

  1. James Kiser Avatar
    James Kiser

    The Waynesboro people is losing the bulk of its ad base the food stores. Kroger and Marin’s have digital in their ads. The Waynesboro paper hasn’t had a decent news story since the early 2000’s. Basically a propaganda mouth piece for the democrats and the deep state.

    1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      You must be happy, therefore, that the newspaper is fading away.

      1. Donald Smith Avatar
        Donald Smith

        There is a certain sense of justice to it. Go woke, go broke and all that.

  2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    “Ruling Class Media (The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, network broadcasting, cable TV, etc.)”

    Well, the Post is moving to delivery by USPS in our area and delivering Sunday paper on Monday putting more pressure on moving to digital format so even the so-called Ruling Class Media (as silly as that term is) is changing with the times (excuse the pun).

    Btw, the News Hour is by far the best nightly TV news broadcast. Hands down…

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Two thumbs on the last BTW.

      By all media watchdogs, NPR and PBS are the gold standard, most neutral – most accurate, but we’re among the alt-fact crowd.

      1. Lefty665 Avatar
        Lefty665

        Since NPT/PBS changed policy and allowed their “reporting” people to participate in political events their coverage has become even more ideologically biased. They are solidly in the “mainstream” of US media we have had since 9/11 when the media decided it was in the national interest to become a mouthpiece for government.

        I encourage you to get out of the echo chamber occasionally and listen to/watch other sources, or at least not delude yourself that what you are hearing/watching is not ideologically loaded.

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          “… we have had since 9/11 when the media decided it was in the national interest to become a mouthpiece for government.”

          It happened in 2001 when the media shilled for GW’s mass murder of a couple 100 thousand Iraqi children… but we split hairs.

          Nevertheless, I’ll take NPR over any of the rest.

          1. Lefty665 Avatar
            Lefty665

            Regrettably the media proclivities have not changed over that period. McNeil and Lehrer are long gone from the News Hour. That show, like the rest of them, is part of an echo chamber today.

            There’s no place I’m aware of to get “straight” news these days, from any perspective. I have to go to several sources and piece it together. Simple example, compare and contrast the Wash Post and the Wash Examiner to come up with a semblance of reality somewhere between them. It’s scary.

            Yeah, the dead Iraqi kids are an example, and that went on for a decade and a half million dead Iraqi kids after the 1st Gulf War. But that was mostly on Clinton’s watch after Old Whiny and before Duhbya added a million more dead civilians that the media barely noticed over a decade + after 9/11. For some reason I ran across a clip from Madeline Albright while she was still Sec State the other day. When asked about the dead Iraqi kids, she opined she had no regrets, that they were worth it.

          2. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Albright? As the song goes, “I wonder who’s Kissinger now?” Bourdain said it, “Come to Cambodia and you’ll want to pummel Kissinger.”

            Well, when we weren’t killing Iraqis, we were paying them to kill Iranians… until Ollie North’s stuff broke and the fact we were also paying Iranians to kill Iraqis.

            Those two Exocets in the Stark were a love note from Saddam to St. Ronnie.

  3. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
    f/k/a_tmtfairfax

    Gotta love seeing more and more journalists losing their jobs.

    Interestingly, we watched some CNN (European) while on the Continent. Most of the broadcast was old-style reporting of what was occurring around the world, most especially in Europe. Not much of the American-style reporters opining to other reporters.

    One would think that someone in New York will get the idea to go back to what used to be — news reporting. I’d be happy just to see the old Headline News return.

  4. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    I want my…
    I want my…
    I want my R-T-D….

    Now look at them yoyos, that’s way you do it
    You fake the story on the Tiktok feed.
    That ain’t workin’. That’s the way you do it.
    Money for nothing and your copy for free.
    Now, that ain’t working, that’s way you do it.

    Lemme tell ya, them guys ain’t dumb,
    Maybe get a blue badge on their Twitter pages.
    Maybe get carpal tunnel thumb

    We got to read these Reuter’s feeds,
    Copy, paste, print and delivery.
    We got to move these ink barrels,
    We got to move these paper rolls…

    Also
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGBohd0V2Mo

  5. Donald Smith Avatar
    Donald Smith

    If Virginia newspapers want to be progressive, that’s their right. They are businesses, not public utilities. And, if they serve progressive communities, it makes sense.

    But, if they choose to take an ideological bent, or “take a side,” in other words, then they shouldn’t expect people from the “other sides” to pay for their product.

    No newspaper is owed a certain amount of subscribers. If a newspaper scares off paying customers, it deserves to suffer. That’s basic economics, and also basic common sense. And, it’s extremely arrogant to expect people to buy your paper because you are (supposedly) THE primary newspaper in an area.

    I guess that enough progressives won’t pay for progressive news. Otherwise, these newspapers would be flourishing.

    And, for those who whine that communities will suffer if their newspapers disappear…well, y’all should have thought of that—or those communities—before you took these newspapers woke.

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