Wednesday, November 01, 2006

One Scrivener's Opinion

A dear, valued academic liberal friend, upon receiving my detailed report of the "rise" of the New York Post, silhouetted against the decline of every other newspaper in the United States, asked me what I thought has happened, and I wrote her this letter. Someone said I should "Blog" it, so here goes (with original caps-emphasis, as it was sent:


Dear M,

A good look at the history of American Journalism would be of good
utility here.

From the time of Philip Freneau's Aurora and the American Gazette (1800 election) when Jefferson hid behind the guys who besmirched Washington, Newspapers have been biased in their news columns and handmaidens of demagogues as well as self-righteous "spoilers" in the opinion / editorial sections. Dig Abe Lincold up and ask HIM.

There is nothing new about that. Television has NEVER had an unbiased commentator since David Brinkley and Chet Huntley. Uncle Walter was a damned JOKE.

The "peepul" have caught on. Most everybody can get news quicker and cheaper on the Internet, and they will continue to do so in greater numbers...REGARDLESS of the bias to the left of GOOGLE, et al, ad nauseum.

On the Internet, they can seek out the Blog or columnist that fits their bias matrix.

The newspapers are dead, except for sports coverage and parceling dead fish and baby diapers. The New York Post is an example of that. It flies in the face of The Big Apple's DOMINANT left-liberal political bent and climbs past the other dailies in the area with "sports and titillation".

People are a lot smarter and more sophisticated nowadays than they were even ten years ago. The twisting and tweaking of straight news stories is OBVIOUS to everyone. Liberals exploit it, of course and I don't blame them. I used to do it myself !!! And, conservatives raise hell impotently...but it just does not matter any more.

On the internet, you can see nasty, wild crap from the "right" and the slobbering demagogues like Huey Long and Talmadge, and you can see the crooks and thugs like the ineffable fugitive from EU justice, G. Soros and you can read Kos and you can see bare breasts (*gasp*) and bestiality, too.

I never thought newspapers were supposed to be "fair and balanced"...but I did---at one time---labor under the misapprehension that the Associated Press and Reuters had a responsibility to report facts and occurrences without subversion and guile.

The deterioration and obvious collectivist, PeeCee tilt...the anti-religion attitude of the Associated Press has had more to do with the extinction of journalism as we know it than ANYTHING the newspapers have done on a local level.

That's the way I see it, and I admit I see through a prism that is born of my years as a reporter and editorial writer on a GREAT newspaper....the old Constitution of Ralph McGill (and Henry Grady's tradition).

Alas, all that has gone with the wind also.

Love, always...

Bill