The Newspapers Today

Black and white and read all over…
A joke from the past.

It turns out that the joke is on us. When the morning paper is delivered, it does not resemble the newspapers of long ago. There is so little to it that it takes all of five minutes to go through it. It disappoints…so why do I buy it? Because of the crossword puzzle. If they ever drop that, then I’ll drop the paper.

Do you miss the old papers?
Do you miss the editor who would not compromise on his ethics?
Do you miss true reporting? Come hell or high water the investigative reporter told it like it was.
Are you happy with the pabulum that is fed to you today? Your local paper, any paper, no longer gets the news using its own reporters, it simply get it off the wire and recycles it to you.

Most of the small newspapers are gone. The diversity of reportage in any town is gone. They’ve been driven out by the conglomerates and all across the country, cities, towns, villages, are getting their news from the only paper in town, if there even is a paper.

This is surely an opportunity to brainwash the locals, to sway the non-thinker, even to halt the thinker in his tracks. No opposing paper to challenge, no opposing paper to wrest a scoop from.

If it weren’t for the name on the masthead, no one would know what paper was supplying the news. They all look alike, they all sound alike, and the ads are the same. The ads… sometimes that is all the paper consists of.

The papers say they can’t stay in business because the public isn’t buying the papers, instead it gets its news from the television. Well maybe so, even though the television gives us bits and snippets early, it can’t do an in depth story like a newspaper. The papers by not doing such stories are really hurting themselves, because once a paper no longer supplies what the public wants and needs, it is on its way out.

The price goes up, the news becomes non existent. Your favorite writer is dropped, your favorite cartoon is gone, the paper has shrunk, and there isn’t any reason to linger over your morning coffee. Or to sit back and relax in the evening and to read what has happened that day.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if there weren’t any newspapers?