"Connecticut's Newspapers are Dying - Good"

So says this editorial by contributor D. Dowd Muska in the New London Day:

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=f3f542c4-a95e-475c-92aa-6e9782e2335c

Fuck you, buddy. And I can't say that strong enough. Closing newspapers and people getting laid off is not a good thing. I will say that these assholes who start these blogs and web pages specifically to rail against a publication being too leftist - when some of the higher-ups wouldn't know a leftist slant if it hit them in the face - are my new pet peeve.

OK, rant over, but my attitude is not helped since the Giants let the Redskins back in this game. Here's the column:


If you work in Connecticut's newspaper industry, the news isn't good.

Journal Register Company, publisher of the New Haven Register and dozens of other Connecticut dailies and weeklies, is planning to unload several of its publications, including The Bristol Press and The (New Britain) Herald. If the company can't find buyers soon, the papers will be shut down. Journal Register's stock was delisted in April, and the Associated Press says another round of layoffs is coming at the New Haven Register.

Earlier this month, The Day, New London's daily, gave pink slips to nine newsroom and two production employees. In June, the ax fell for a far larger number of workers at The Hartford Courant - the nation's “oldest continuously published newspaper” cut 60 newsroom positions.

In the months and years to come, others are sure to follow suit. Circulation numbers are plummeting - according to the Hartford Business Journal, between 2000 and 2006, the state's dailies “lost more than 106,000 subscribers.”

But if you're a Nutmegger who supports lower taxes and limited government, the death of newspapers in your state is very, very good news. With the exception of Big Labor, the print press is Connecticut leftists' most valuable asset.

State government has been out of control for decades, but you wouldn't know that from reading the “work” of the capitol press corps. For the most part, reporters on the Hartford beat can't be bothered to document the massive waste and mismanagement that drive Connecticut's highest-in-the-nation tax burden. (After all, like the politicians they cover, most love Big Government.) Sure, some buck the trend - the (Waterbury) Republican-American's Paul Hughes and the (Manchester) Journal Inquirer's Don Michak stand out as journalists with enough guts to question Connecticut's statist quo. Most of their colleagues are content to be stenographers for the power elite.

Health care “reporting” is particularly poor. You'll see plenty of sob-sister stories about folks who can't afford insurance, but search in vain for anything about the role mandates and trial lawyers play in driving up the price of healthcare here. Environmental stories are worse. Nicholas Wade, a former science editor for The New York Times, once admitted to The Washington Post's media writer Howard Kurtz that the press often serves as a “passive conduit” for the eco-left. That's certainly the case in Connecticut, where readers are subjected to outrageously one-sided tales of the horrors of “sprawl,” alleged dangers of pesticides, and imminent apocalypse from “global climate change.”

Coverage of local fiscal affairs is even more maddening. Every spring, reporters swallow educrat unions' hysterical predications of impending school-district doom if voters don't approve budgets. Taxpayer groups, if they're mentioned at all, are labeled “anti-tax.” Their opponents are, of course, “pro-education.” And when budget proposals are defeated, reductions in proposed expenditure increases are reported as “cuts.”

Unbalanced commentary pages

The scales aren't balanced in commentary sections. Of the state's 18 dailies, one - the Republican-American - has a conservative editorial page. Most op-ed pages contain token right-wing pieces, but they're almost exclusively penned by nationally syndicated writers whose work never examines public policy in the Nutmeg State, and is available for free online. Indigenous conservative and libertarian voices are blackballed.

State-based columnists are overwhelmingly leftist. Despite its status as Connecticut's most-read daily, the Courant doesn't have a single conservative writing a stand-alone column. (In 2006, Michele Jacklin, a former Courant capitol reporter turned columnist, went to work for New Haven Mayor John DeStefano's gubernatorial campaign. Apparently, Jodi Rell wasn't liberal enough.)

Although it's tempting to give it the credit, let's face facts: Disgust with left-wing bias isn't sinking Connecticut's newspapers. Online classifieds, 24-hour sports on cable, and a U.S.-born population that is fleeing for warmer and economically freer states are more to blame.

But regardless of its causes, the death of Connecticut's print press presents an enormous opportunity for the state's right. Web sites and e-mail are cheap. Online audio and video are becoming cheaper. A relatively small amount of money would go a long way setting up alternative media - true alternative media - charged with examining the causes of and solutions to Connecticut's fiscal and economic woes.

As for Connecticut's ink-stained wretches, some will keep their jobs. Many will make the not-too-big-of-a-jump into flacking for government agencies and liberal pols. (Several already have.) A lot will need to find work in other industries.

Connecticut's reporters and editors abdicated their obligation to provide balanced coverage and commentary long ago. It's difficult to dredge up sympathy for their rapidly vanishing livelihoods.

D. Dowd Muska Is A Writer, Commentator And Lecturer. His Website Is Www.dowdmuska.com.

 

I'd like to second that "fuck you, buddy" to the author of that piece.

 

The primary beneficiaries of the demise of newspapers and other major media are thieves, public and private . . . that, and blatant environment-abusers.

When there's no one watching the henhouse . . .

Modern media opinion is rather diverse. There's plenty of conservative opinionation out there.

This guy seems the typical "local editiorial pages aren't in line with my way of thinking . . thus, they suck" type.

 

Go to this joker's website and clock his latest column.

A clear anti-environment/wildlife type . . . just the kind of turkey who deserves to be doused at a cocktail party.

 

I just find it ironic that the guy complaining about how the paper sucks, has his piece published in a paper.
You can find lots of reasons to complain, but this guy is just whining.

 

Day still has a Sunday circ of about 40k, maybe a bit less.

Would like to know how many unique visitors go to this douche bag's Web site in a month... probably 142. Then they join for the grand circle jerk on full moon nights.

Asshat.

 

Are there really a lot of people who have stopped reading newspapers because they think the papers are too liberal or is that just a very loud minority?

 

McDonald's won't let me stand in the drive thru lane with a sign reading "Meat is Murder."

Walmart is not going to let me stand on the customer service desk and call their employees crooks.

Why should any newspaper let someone burn up precious newshole to spout his death wish for the industry? Refund his subscription and tell him to piss off.

 

My brother still reads the newspaper, but he bitches continually about the liberal media and how it affected the election. He still comes up with video reports and stories about how the media let Obama skate and torched McCain.

 

Ding ding fuckin ding.

Who does this asshole think will serve as checks and balances once the newspapers are all gone? Has he stopped to think that the reason the reporters in the state are "stenographers" is b/c HIS FUCKING CONSERVATIVE BUDDIES HAVE GUTTED THE PAPERS TO ALMOST NOTHING? Becaues Bob Jelenic and Sam Zell are voting Democratic.

For the love of fuck. Someone spam this asshole's site.

 

Someone needs to tell this guy about the New York Sun. They lean towards the right, yet they are going out of business too.

But of course, the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

 

I believe that there's a much stronger belief in the liberal establishment media, driven by mass conspiracy, these days because of guys like Sean Hannity shouting it over and over again. Some letters to the editor I read in the local paper are right out of Hannity's mouth.