You Can't Make This Stuff Up 052508

Can You Say Desperation?

Hey folks,

We all know the numbers. We have all see the effects. The New Media has made a profound effect on the news industry. A negative one. Before the Internet, Rush, Foxnews, Hannity, ETC. the mainstream media had a lock on what you knew and when you knew it. They could get away with furthering their agendas unabashed. Unchallenged, they could make stuff up completely, and no one would know the difference. Not now.

Now more and more people are learning just who some in the mainstream media really are. When they try to spin stories, omit facts, or completely make stuff up, they get caught. Over and over again. The NYT's is dwindling, numbers are down in all areas a notable amount. TV is seeing their rates dipping to all time lows. Liberal Radio? All but flops right out of the box, every time it is tried. People are getting smarter.

So instead of actually doing what they should do, and that is simply report the news, they have decided to try to compete. They have failed. So instead of doing what they should do, report the news, they are trying to SILENCE their opposition. Can you say Fairness Doctrine? Instead of doing what they should be doing, reporting the news, they want to continue to lie to you. It's simply desperation. Get this from USAToday - On 225th birthday, newspapers dying?

Plain Talk by Al Neuharth

"The report of my death is an exaggeration."

• Mark Twain to the New York Journal, 1897

The first daily newspaper in the USA was born 225 years ago next week. The triweekly Pennsylvania Evening Post in Philadelphia became a daily on May 30, 1783.

Since then, most cities or small towns across the USA have had their own daily or weekly newspaper. Currently, 1,422 dailies and 6,253 weeklies are being published.

Sure, the slumping economy has made times a little tough for them. But most still have profit margins well above most other businesses.

It's NOT the economy stupid. It's YOU. It is the mainstream media doing what they have always done in the face of the fact there are now alternatives. Alternatives that more and more people are seeing as more honest.

Exaggerated "obits," á la Mark Twain's, are being peddled mostly by newspapers themselves. When semiannual circulation figures were released recently, newspapers headlined slight losses among eight of the Top 10. But little or no attention was given papers that are growing. Examples:

* USA TODAY, the nation's largest, increased to 2,284,219 daily circulation. It has shown gains every year in its 25-year history.

* The No. 2 Wall Street Journal gained to 2,069,463. Under new owner/boss Rupert Murdoch, it's the most improved newspaper in the country and likely to show significant sharp future increases.

* A dozen other newspapers with circulations of 50,000 or more had gains ranging from 1.21% to 7.61%, including in Baton Rouge, Cincinnati, Mobile, Ala., Munster, Ind., San Jose, Calif., Seattle and Trenton, N.J.

Other than Seattle, that Rush uses a bit on his show, go figure, have you even HEARD of any of these?

Importantly, newspaper owners and editors have embraced the Internet and now are 24/7 providers of news, information, entertainment and advertising. The hunger for all that is greater than ever in history. That's why newspaper-oriented media companies have a bright future.

So, if you're a news junkie, you'll probably continue to get everything you've been getting from your newspaper. And more.

Uh, OK. {Smile}
Peter

Sources:
USAToday - On 225th birthday, newspapers dying?