esrosedotblog

DUMBING DOWN

We have been here ten years and I was proud to say that we moved to a region with a far better daily paper than the Boston Globe.

"Not a stretch" you might say, if you live in Boston. Anyway, it was a relief.

But, the LATimes is in trouble.

For example, it has lousy national distribution despite its warehouse of Pulitzers and other prizes for wonderful national coverage.

I hear that there is not one paper delivered to a newstand in Washington DC.

They have not seized the moment with their web page. It sucks. The daily headline newsletters that feed reader interest come in every week or two. I am not kidding.

And you have to pay to use the archives even though you are, like me, a daily subscriber to the hard copy.

I have loved my daily read though. It gets here at 330 AM just in time for me to have with my breakfast.

Some time ago we heard rumblings. The owner is the Tribune Company of Chicago. Not a notable publisher.

There have been coups and firings and reshuffling.

They fired Michael Kinsley from the editorial pages a year ago. Some favorite columnists have been downsized. I was even sorry to see their right wing cartoonist get fired. He got my blood racing every morning. Michael Ramirez. I miss the bastard.

A couple of months ago the first two inside pages were devoted to a summary of the rest of the paper. What? Why?

Now, we have more change.

I was going to write a rant. Well, I have.

But Kevin Drum has done a far better job.

Let 'em have it Kevin.

THE J-CONSULTANT MAFIA STRIKES AGAIN

They told us about tomorrow. No more 'Column One' on the left hand of the front page.

I hear that there are to be firings.

The first was the publisher who declined to cut when the Trib told them to hack the staff.

It is for the shits.

But that is the state of the newspaper in our country today.

I have to admit that I get most of my news from the net. Soon, it will be all.

We cancelled our local rag a long time ago; a no-news pr-reprint product from Gannett.

What else?

I don't know. The do-do is extinct because it couldn't evolve in the right direction; a bird that lost the capacity to fly. The Times is sure on its way to earthbound extinction.

Sad.