tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post2042566600864494974..comments2007-12-18T16:45:59.271-05:00Ted Rallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15206037144515105918noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-20811454362893223482007-12-18T15:21:00.000-05:002007-12-18T15:21:00.000-05:00John, the idea of going "straight to the people" was a typical tactic used by Caesar and other corrupt politicians to get around more reasonable solutions. It is called tyranny of the masses and I am sick of it. Not until education improves (never), will democracy cease to be what it is. And here is what it currently is:<BR/><BR/>A total sham.angelonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-60611839623396797552007-12-17T01:02:00.000-05:002007-12-17T01:02:00.000-05:00Angelo -<BR/>Maybe you'd prefer yourself to be the chief engineer too?<BR/>I'm the polyanna who still wants to give a shot to the sentiments expressed in the Declaration and to the specifications in the Constitution. Or die trying. ("Live free and die young!")<BR/>I have a nightmare vision of the phrase "regular people" being folded into the Sly tune "Everyday People" and used in the mass media to sell soon-to-be-ubiquitous-for-us geriatric products.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08112148819715996300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-11686546006073558052007-12-15T04:23:00.000-05:002007-12-15T04:23:00.000-05:00John, I don't know. Do you think regular people can still be trusted to solve a problem like this?<BR/><BR/>I kind of feel like a country is a machine. Every little system needs to be designed and tweaked by engineers, monitored by scientists and administered by technicians. <I>Not</I> idiot masses and salesmen.<BR/><BR/>any takers?angelonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-87091535647996645282007-12-12T15:49:00.000-05:002007-12-12T15:49:00.000-05:00How does regulation figure into all of this. Real regulation.angelonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-12769693571942990452007-12-11T07:51:00.000-05:002007-12-11T07:51:00.000-05:00Well good morning, Merry Sunshine! How cheerful today! As news increasingly becomes a platform for salesmen, we see the deterioration so evident on TV news - even on so-called public TV news. Polyanna that I am, I like to think that people will get fed up with the use of public property to sell us shit and demand actual researched, documented, and corroborated information. In other words, get mad as hell and say we're not going to take it anymore. We're starting to see some directly user-supported, deeper and broader, video-oriented news sources, mostly by means of the internet.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08112148819715996300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-89560482204020461652007-12-10T22:20:00.000-05:002007-12-10T22:20:00.000-05:00Incidentally, the European and Japanese examples are a perfect illustration of my point. Was the internet responsible for their situation? No way. The reason is the European and Japanese propensity to allow a single giant corporation to control every single industry in the entire country and then meld them halfway with the government and regulate them in a totally pro-monopoly way. They love that crap. You biggest fear is that our society is headed in that direction but without any of the culture to make it palatable.Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14564306648081639607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-73946275367907977322007-12-10T22:13:00.000-05:002007-12-10T22:13:00.000-05:00Sorry Ted, I think you're simplifying things a bit too much here. The alleged storied newspaper past is like the myth of the "good ol' days." What about yellow journalism, Pulitzer, Hearst. Didn't they insight a war with cuba or something.<BR/><BR/>Regional newspapers aren't going away. All your arguments could made saying democracy is dead because young people don't vote as often as old people. They never have!!!<BR/><BR/>My guess is the web will turn out to be about as much a threat to newspapers as TV was to radio. In a few years people will get tired of blogs and move onto something else.<BR/><BR/>How about books? Are they dead too because movies tell stories.<BR/><BR/>If regional papers die it won't be because of the internet it will be for lack of regulation as is happening with radio.Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14564306648081639607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-63621001455713780702007-12-10T21:11:00.000-05:002007-12-10T21:11:00.000-05:00Hey, I like Maureen Dowd. She's funny!Russellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-42113797868887214312007-12-10T15:27:00.000-05:002007-12-10T15:27:00.000-05:00anonymous said<BR/>"Print media has been killing itself just fine, thanks, independent of the foolishness of giving away content."<BR/><BR/>ted said<BR/>"It's a trend that began decades ago, when newspapers closed overseas news bureaus and eliminated long-term investigative journalism to cut costs, and started embracing elites rather than exposing them. And it's terrible for our society, culture and politics. Government and business will face even less accountability than they do today. Democracy will lie in ruins. The print newspaper business, however, will be going gangbusters."<BR/><BR/>I say:<BR/>we give China shit for not letting people have access to information. But who's citizens do you suppose get lied to less?Angelohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06412789587317769889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-44687543794718518342007-12-10T12:36:00.000-05:002007-12-10T12:36:00.000-05:00Hilarious, Ted. You note the economic trends, and claim they cause (and predict more of) a decline in newspaper quality, woe unto us. But perhaps the arrow of causality points the other way? How many fraudsters like Mike Barnicles and Jayson Blairs can each of the major dailies support? How many harpies like Maureen Dowd? Print media has been killing itself just fine, thanks, independent of the foolishness of giving away content.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-64018778510932832292007-12-10T09:07:00.000-05:002007-12-10T09:07:00.000-05:00hey what about PayPal, its an online paysite originally used exclusively for Ebay but now is finding its way to various online commercial sites. Instead of punching in lines of personal info, you just put in your paypal user name and pw Done!, sure its open to identity fraud, but its not like your any safer with most major banks having our personal info on their records prone to theft - I mean you hear about it like every other week.Fouadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120261727093178587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-192250594737236652007-12-10T04:10:00.000-05:002007-12-10T04:10:00.000-05:00btw, your prognostications on the future of the media resemble a cover story by the Economist from September/October 2006 or 2007. They came to the same conclusions; a dozen large national papers, numerous small town weeklies, and a multitude of free metro dailies. However, they did have one exception, the included the large number of online muckrakers, (i.e drudge report) and democratically addicted investigative professionals like Palast and their citizen reporter follower army.yousuf_sajjadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06106579898071906863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-91647849812339773442007-12-10T04:06:00.000-05:002007-12-10T04:06:00.000-05:00whither Greg Palast?<BR/><BR/>so Ted when are you going to put out the comic version of "Armed Madhouse", we're still waiting here...yousuf_sajjadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06106579898071906863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5288939.post-9515264637890551162007-12-10T01:53:00.000-05:002007-12-10T01:53:00.000-05:00You are so right about the number of national newspapers here in Japan. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen any local Japanese papers (although I think there's some in Tokyo).<BR/><BR/>Glad you mentioned free daily papers. I've been following the trend for about a year or so now. Free dailies are more common in Europe, but it started catching on in US around 2003. There are now over 45, most of which are in California and Colorado, and the number is increasing.<BR/><BR/>Of course, as you said, this won't improve the quality of journalism. It'd be interesting to see how they will turn out few decades from now.Brubakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10741995395720022279noreply@blogger.com