Posted on 02/26/2009 7:58:18 AM PST by SmithL
A couple of years ago, when speaking to a local group, I mentioned that The Chronicle was losing money. A couple in the back of the room rudely applauded. How thrilled those two must have felt when - if - they learned of Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega's announcement Tuesday that the Hearst Corp. will implement "significant" workforce cuts. If the cuts don't pay off, then the Hearst Corp. will "offer the newspaper for sale or close it altogether."
Bloggers and e-mailers are crowing. If The Chronicle is shuttered, they'll be dancing a jig.
Many conservatives feel a warm glow at the possible demise of an institution that they believe to be failing because of liberal bias. On the far left, that same glow will satisfy those who think newspapers are not liberal enough.
As for those who only read their news online, here's a news flash: News stories do not sprout up like Jack's bean stalk on the Internet. To produce news, you need professionals who understand the standards needed to research, report and write on what happened. If newspapers die, reliable information dries up.
Reduced ad revenue and falling newspaper circulation mean that there will be fewer people to cover the same number of stories. In the middle of an economic crisis and President Obama's federal spending bonanza, there will be fewer watchdogs to guard the shop.
So to those of you who argue that the demise of liberal newspapers (The Chronicle in particular) is deserved, I offer a caveat: Be careful what you wish for.
Remember the ugly consequences of San Francisco's sanctuary city policy for juvenile offenders, who were sent abroad instead of to jail? Or Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' failure to tackle crime in Oaktown? Or reports on corporate bonuses for execs at bailed-out banks? Imagine....
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I know that you don’t agree, but I think Debra says it pretty well.
False equivalence from RINO Saunders.
The joke of the day.
I have to disagree with her that journalists are professionals. This is not a profession. Anyone with a pencil and paper can be a journalist...and oftentimes do it better than the so-called professionals.
I notice that their classified advertising is WAY down.
Why pay $30 for an ad, when you can get better results on Craigslist for free.
I'm sure the death of the old newspapers will have unintended consequences, but I don't care.
I hate those bastards.
I would pay for a watchdog. I'm getting tired of being told I have to pay for a "watchdog" which is obviously a fat and lazy lapdog.
My answer to her is that the web will see information of all kinds distributed more widely than ever before in human history. Witness the tea parties that have gone viral in less than one week’s time. The Drive-Bys don’t even know it’s going on.
As part of the Old Media, she’s miffed that they’re losing the ability to tell us what is and isn’t news.
Beat me to it.
The entire article assumes that the SanFrancChron is staffed with “professional journalists”. I would argue that real journalists (and by journalists I mean people that report news and that’s it) are so few and far between that there likely aren’t enough to staff a single newsroom anywhere in the country. At least the blogs that slant my news are up front, and I konw what I’m getting, rather than some song and dance about “objectivity” that doesn’t exist.
Everything the left controls it kills.
Education, Hollywood, MSM and now the United States.
Thank you Debra for making our point...now down with the Chronicle!
I feel bad for her because she tries hard but all lib papers can die. The sooner the better. Carlos Slim is bleeding the Ny Slimes with his 14% convertible loan.
We have to hit the MSM TV News. Canceling cable and sat TV, boycott their parent companies like Disney and GE or something. We have to do it soon or we are headed towards serfdom.
Too many journalists and "editors", not enough reporters.
LOL ... cutting and pasting from AP, Reuters and the New York Times and then changing a few words is hardly a “professional” job.
Those that do are looking to bury it deep so it looks like a couple of crackpots.
Neal Boortz was talking about a FairTax rally he was at with thousands of people. On a nearby corner there were a dozen people protesting the war in Iraq. The war protesters made the news while thousands rallying against the current tax code might as well have not happened at all in the MSM's view.
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