David Byrne has more insight into our industry than most people running it

http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2008/12/121808-no-more-news.html

 

Where have we heard these ideas before? Oh, that's right, from nearly everybody who has any kind of opinion about the degradation of our industry.

He makes some good points, but it's not like we haven't heard them before. And it's not like he's got some great solutions that will magically solve all the problems that plague our industry.

 

David Byrne needs to ... stop making sense.

 

Same as it ever was ... same as it ever was ... same as it ... EVER ... was.

 

Yup, yup, yup.
I don't care if some of this is old. It's good whenever people write about the incompetent assholes who run the newspaper business. I loved his line bosses don't fire bosses. At least those bosses will be driven insane by the drivel written by, and unreliability, of the citizen journalists who work for free in the future.

 

Qu'est-que c'est?

 

I wonder if McClatchy will send Byrne a nasty note?
The Times, at first, said McClatchy had made drastic cuts and it was the focus of the article. When it was pointed that they hadn't, the Times made some changes, but still couldn't keep from patting themselves on the back and didn't mention McClatchy, the DC bureau that generally got it right, was standing strong.

That being said, what Byrne wrote was hardly original and relied on local reporting to make his point. Just like many other blogs and such. I could read better opinion on the news business here.

 

Why do feel compelled whenever somebody mentions a band or singer in any context to just post a line from one of his songs?

You really think it's funny or clever?

 

It's more fun than ... burning down the house.

 

The more third parties who make the case for newspapers, the better. We may know the sermon chapter and verse, but the idea is for the message to reach the majority of people who don't.

 

I'm waiting for some folks here to tell David Byrne that he's being too negative and, by gosh, there still will be a need and an appetite for news and information, just in a different technology.

 

Thought that went without saying.