Journalism sliding downhill fast ???

Question

I was disappointed to see Andrew Rosenthal promoted to editor of the editorial page of the NY Times. Anybody else remember his made up story about the elder Bush and barcode scanners ?? Rosenthal was flat out busted writing a column describing the president's awe at barcode scanners, funny thing was Rosenthal wasn't present for the event and of course got his facts all wrong. These things happen when you plagairize the AP pool writer's notes.

Not a company to let such incompetence go unnoticed, the Times promptly promoted Rosenthal and now he gets another promotion. What a sad circumstance for what was once the paper of record for the whole world.

Answer 1

I'm not an expert on the office poltics at the NYT, but I can tell you that as someone who works at a newspaper, I feel like I have a front seat to the extinction of newspapers.

Across the country, newspapers are slashing their reporting staff and scrambling to find some way to compete with Internet-based news and Craigslist. It's not an exaggeration to say that publishers are scared and don't know what to do.

I think that within 10 years, maybe as early as five, newspapers (whichever are left) won't be anything like the newspapers of today. As soon as they can figure out a way to do it, I bet papers will actually quit being *papers* and move everything online. The question is, once you're online only, how do you compete with news.google.com and other sites?

Of course, the answer is local news. But with the way they're slashing newsroom staffing, that's going to become increasingly hard to do.

As I ask everyone around me at work, "What's your second career going to be?"

Answer 2

We should not even try, the people of Zimbabwe will have to sort this one themselves when it was known as Rhodesia and part of the British Empire it was at least prosperous and had a thriving economy they demanded Independence got it and promptly screwed it up. Interfering now will be like trying to pacify two drunks outside a bar we will just get a black eye for our pains.We have more than enough on our plates now. We need to put our own house in order before we interfere with anyone else.

Answer 3

that's what happens as the news media falls into fewer and fewer corporate hands.