Wednesday, April 01, 2009

...and that's why they call it "the morgue".

Joanna of Ready, Fire, Aim, Apologize on the ongoing death of the newspaper, which is turning into a grade school Mercutio's exit scene:
"[H]e lamented the demise of the newspaper because without it, there would be no one to speak for freedom and democracy and no one to champion the people's cause. Which is all fine and good except, you know, we can kind of do that ourselves now."
Every year on the school field trip, we'd laugh on cue when our tour guide showed us "...the morgue. But don't worry, kids, it's not where we keep dead bodies; it's where we keep old stories."

Pretty soon you'll be able to keep the whole paper there.

9 comments:

  1. We can do it ourselves now, because of course there's no way to stop our research, or our publication and distribution system. It's not as though the people who run Google, or the government itself, could possibly do that!

    We need lots of private news organisations. Perhaps the survivors will note that the more lap dog, one sided rags are the ones failing, and learn.

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  2. I have zero sympathy. They brought it upon themselves.

    All I want are facts. I can decide for myself how that affects me.

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  3. they know it, and they're scared...

    http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090323/GPG0706/903230512

    they believe that without them, the crooks will flourish...what they don't understand is that their belief that they get to define who and what the crooks are is the real problem.

    that's right leonard...the blogs didn't do you in; you did it to yourself.

    jtc

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  4. [Begin Scottish Accent]
    "Newspaper. How quaint."
    [End Scottish Accent]

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  5. I'll bet you my lunch that if I had kids today, they'd look at a newspaper the same way I look at carburetors on cars: Quaint, good for their time, but hopelessly obsolete.

    (This is not to say they don't have many practical uses on smaller motors where injection isn't worth the cost, but I digress.)

    Jim

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  6. We had to get rid of our morgue*. The fire martial told us it was a fire hazard.


    *I work at a university student newspaper as a production manager and layout editor. Also, damn near everything you've ever heard about bias in the media is true, and my coworkers are walking examples.

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  7. The best parts of the paper were the columnists, not the line stories. Heck, I heard the news on the radio on the way to the porch to get the paper. Where are the columnists now, the new Roykos, Terkels, etc.? On Blogger and Wordpress, etc.

    Fill a paper half with AP wire stories, and half with Tam, Og, Hammer, Dick, Turon, and the rest of you, and watch that mother sell!

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  8. The death of the newspaper is sad, but if it had worth that they could sell, it would be selling. My own mother was a newspaper writer for a decade and a half, and I don't buy the paper. It is time to pass on, because it cannot make it on its own. When the paper is needed, it will spring up again, I promise you. In the meantime, let's not break our backs trying to keep them up. That's just life on the Serengeti.

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  9. of course d.l. has not yet announced the bailouts for the state mouthpiece...

    too big and too important to the cause to fail, the nyt will certainly receive support one way or the other.

    of course we may need to station a few, uh, overseers in the editorial suite...and change the name. how about pravda...oh, wait, that's taken...okay, pnt...people's national times, aka "punt"?

    jtc

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