I don’t much care for the political direction of the Seattle Times editorial board under Frank Blethen, but I’m willing to give his son Ryan (his heir apparent) the benefit of the doubt.
Ryan recently joined the Times as an editorial columnist after a stint as a regional editor at the family-owned Press Herald and Sunday Telegram in Portland, Maine. While I’ll reserve judgement on Ryan’s skills as a writer, I’m at least relieved to find him coming across as thoughtful, curious and open-minded. For example, his column today on the newspaper industry’s circulation woes was somewhat self-critical.
There are many gloomy predictions about newspapers in the cyber world. Frequently, these predictions of the newspaper’s demise are sent in the form of nasty e-mails that ooze with joy at the irrelevance of the MSM. (MSM is not a news division at Microsoft, but the mainstream media.)
Those radical conservative and grass-roots liberal bloggers who trumpet their hatred for the press, on which they rely for vitriol, are wrong about the fall of newspapers. It has nothing to do with being too liberal or too conservative. It has to do with our treatment of readers, no matter their political stripe.
First of all, I’d like to assure Ryan that I’m not one of those bloggers who hates newspapers. On the contrary, I love newspapers. I don’t subscribe to any, but I read bits and pieces of dozens of papers a day… including the Seattle Times. I’ve had the privilege of meeting dozens of reporters and columnists, and I genuinely like almost every single one of them. (And I don’t mean to offend any of them, but I now kinda, sorta consider myself a journalist too.)
In fact, I love daily newspapers so much, that I desperately hope Seattle manages to support two of them… regardless of the physical medium on which they are published.
So I hope Ryan takes my comments in the constructive spirit in which they are offered, for I really do want our local papers to succeed and prosper and expand their newsrooms so that they can continue to fill the crucial role they play in a functioning democracy.
But in his analysis, I think Ryan got it only half right. He’s absolutely dead-on when he talks about building relationships with readers and reestablishing public trust. But he misses the point entirely if he thinks the problem lies with technological interlopers like Google News.
Essentially, Google News is hijacking news with no compensation to newspapers. The search engines then get credit for the entire news-gathering and presentation process. A lot of online news reader say they get their news from Google or Yahoo!
See now, if i didn’t read blogs, i wouldn’t have been directed to this non-local, cross-country news story from a newspaper’s reporting less than an hour ago about one of the heroes of wingnuttery.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ne.....-headlines
WEST PALM BEACH — Rush Limbaugh was arrested Friday on prescription drug charges, with his attorney saying he has reached a deal with prosecutors that will eventually see the charges dismissed if he continues treatment for drug addiction.
Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant issued by the State Attorney’s Office, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office.
The conservative radio commentator came into the jail at about 4 p.m. with his attorney Roy Black and left an hour later after posting $3,000 bail, Barbera said. The warrant was for fraud to conceal information to obtain prescriptions, Barbera said.
BLethen should be worried. The librul biases in both papers are so deep that the editors don’t even know they’re there. Either that, or they’re liars.
Either way, the librul trash they spew out doesn’t sell. Due to the new media, especially talk radio, people know the truth now. We know the lies. We see the spin. And we’re not buying it.
So until old media figures out how to be truly “fair and balanced” they’re gonna continue to decline and die.
Great post – (especially the earnest “I add value.”, though of course I agree, you do)
I think the issue you don’t touch one but which is at the core of any Blethen’s concern is (what the Microsofties call) monetization. The New York Times recently introduced its online Times Select – the really juicy stuff – the Sunday magazine articles, super smart editorials, etc. you now have to pay for.
Very few papers have that kind of pull with their readers – I just don’t love Art Thiel or Danny Westneat that much.
I did however just go online to see when a particular movie is playing at the Admiral in West Seattle. I went to the P-I website – because I know the answer is there and I’m familiar with the lay out of the site, and it’s already in my favorites/ bookmarks. I could have typed in seattlemovietimes.com, but I didn’t.
Now I don’t get the whole online advertising revenue thing – eyeballs, clickthroughs, micropayments… but it seems to me the Admiral theater owes the P-I a quarter of a cent. They used to get it in the form of tiny ads, daily, in the Arts and Entertainment pages. Paper pages I’m talking about here.
I know there’s freedom of contract, and the Admiral doesn’t want to have to pay the Times or the P-I, and I might not even go to the movie, but if I do go it’ll be because I could easily find the time on the website.
I wasn’t going to find it on this website, though I think I owe you another beer.
thanks.
Funny – one post about Limbaugh being arrested for abusing drugs then another post telling us that the truth of neocon talk radio is setting us free from the librul trash of traditional newspapers.
fantastic!
POster – yer makin my point. He was NOT arrested. Get that? NOT arrested. The old media lied. Again.
The case is OVER. OVER. Get it?
Breaking news. Hero of the right wing chickenhawk parade booked into jail on drug related charges. Lush Flimbaugh shows us the moral majority is neither! HE HE! How’s it feel you right wing turds to tell your kids to look up to a drug addict criminal. HE HE!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....augh_x.htm
LMAO !!!!!!!!!!!! Dumass @ 6 makes the point. Story is FALSE. Charges dropped. Investigation over. End of story.
This is why old librul media is doomed.
Goldy – COngrats. What perfect timing.
Librul media spews false stories about someone they hate at the same time you’re sucking your thumb wondering why old media is dying.
LMAO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why would you pay bail if you were not arrested? What if he didn’t pay bail, could he just go home? Sounds like he was arrested to me.
If, as the wingnuts say, people aren’t reading the newspapers because of liberal bias, than why are rightwing rags like the Washington Times and the New York Post massive money-losers?
We can say that Rush Limbaugh was “arrested” — yes, he was booked and immediately bailed out. Actually, a common arrangement with non-violent offenses in many jurisdictions.
But the CASE IS BASICALLY OVER. Limbaugh got a similar deferral deal that any other defendant would have gotten on the same charges in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Hey Goldy – Howzit feel to step on yer dick. LMAO…
Prosecutors seized Limbaugh’s records after learning that he received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion. They contended that Limbaugh engaged in “doctor shopping,” or illegally deceived multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions.
Limbaugh acknowledged he became addicted to pain medication, blaming it on severe back pain.
According to Black, Limbaugh also has agreed to make a $30,000 payment to the state to defray the public cost of the investigation. The agreement also provides that he must refrain from violating the law during this 18 months, must pay $30 per month for the cost of supervision and comply with other similar provisions of the agreement.
EVERYONE TOGETHER NOW:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh… Poor right-wing liar….
Can you even imagine the noise machine of the right wing if this were Franken? It’d be front page news at Fox.
Fact. Right wing hero arrested. Fact right wing hero had to pay millions to lawyer. Fact right wing hero had to be booked, fingerprinted and get a mugshot. Fact, right wing hero has to stay in treatment and can’t change doctors for 18 months. Fact, right wing hero has to pay $30k fine. Fact if Lush violates ANY term of this deal he’s up on felony charges again and this case is active until the 18 month period is up. Not exactly a “case over” situation now is it. But hey, you right wing hypocrites don’t care about truth or justice and never have so why are we surprised that your hero is a drug addict, liar and chickenhawk?
By the way, if it were you or me, we’d have been in jail from day one.
That brings up an interesting thought. I’ve never been arrested, fingerprinted and photographed by the police and don’t know anyone who has. I guess republicans are just used to that these days so it’s no big deal!
TR shows his ignorance. As CandrewB notes, one doesn’t pay bail unless one has been arrested on a criminal charge — bail is what one pays to keep from being jailed awaiting trial. Also, one does not enter a plea — not guilty, guilty, or whatever — unless one has been charged with a crime. Hell, MTR, haven’t you ever even watched a TV crime drama?
Seems to me that this agreement constitutes conditional probation. From the USAToday story, we learn that “Limbaugh would eventually see the charge dismissed in 18 months if he continues treatment for drug addiction”. IOW, the charges against this addict will be dropped if the junkie can somehow stay clean for the next year and a half. At this time, the charges have NOT been dropped, the case has NOT been dismissed, and that fat, pathetic junkie WAS arrested.
You’re batting oh-for-whatever, MTR.
BTW, remember the silly non-story about the legal disposition of Darcy Burner’s traffic violation? How come there are no bleats of false outrage over this manifestly similar handling of a vastly more serious felony charge?
All probation is conditional. You have to meet the specified conditions in order to complete the probation satisfactorily. So calling it “conditional probation” is a bit excessive.
What Blethens is experiencing is competition, like in the days when there were newspapers in every little burg around the Sound.
The low costs of putiing out a blog returns us to the late forties and fifties era of news buying.
The florida loophole. Takes a lawyer and several million dollars but if the charge is reduced low enough, any drug addict/scammer can qualify… unless they have ever annoyed Jeb. Then it’s Stark for you and pretty damn quick.
This law is also the reason so many telemarketers and con operations are based in Florida.
In the Florida court system, fraud is just a tax opportunity for the DA.
———
Successfully Completing a Diversion Program
Guarantees the Dismissal of Your Charge
“Diversion” programs (Pre-Trial Intervention and Domestic Violence Intervention) are designed for individuals who have been accused of committing a third degree felony or a misdemeanor.* These programs provide an alternative to the three step process of entering a not guilty plea, proceeding to trial, and having a verdict entered by a jury. Instead, people who are accepted into a diversion program and complete it successfully avoid the trial process entirely because the criminal charge pending against them is dismissed.
Am I Eligible for Diversion?
The State Attorney’s Office will typically approve a client’s application for participation in a diversion program, if the client has little or no prior criminal history. The written application prepared by your attorney contains an affidavit attesting to your complete past record of arrest, if any.
How Does the Application Process Work?
Application for acceptance into the local diversion program is made by your attorney to the State Attorney’s Office. The State Attorney’s Office then reviews the application in order to determine if you are a good candidate for the diversion program. The judge assigned to your case makes final approval.
What Does the Program Involve?
Upon acceptance into the program, all court proceedings are suspended. You, your attorney, the prosecutor, and the judge sign a written contract promising the following:
· That you will complete certain terms and conditions appropriate to the nature of the offense charged (i.e., pay restitution in a theft case or get substance abuse counseling in a drug case).
· That you agree not to be arrested or charged with any new offense while participating in the program.
· That the court agrees to dismiss the charge upon your successful completion of the program.
What are the Benefits?
Clearly, the greatest benefit that is realized in completing the diversion program is having the pending charge against you dismissed. A dismissal of your charge represents a final and permanent outcome. You will not be convicted of the crime with which you were charged. Thereafter, you will be able to truthfully state that you were never convicted. You will also sidestep the trial process completely, which minimizes the number of times you would have to appear in court and the expense of additional court costs and attorney’s fees. Thus, your dismissal of charges otherwise avoids the expense and uncertain outcome associated with a jury trial. Furthermore, many clients who successfully complete diversion programs are often eligible to have their records sealed.
What Happens if I Don’t Complete the Program Successfully?
If you violate the “Diversion” program contract, (i.e. arrested for new offense) the legal process “resets” back to the point where it was before you entered the program. A new pre-trial conference is then scheduled. At this point, your attorney can still enter into plea negotiations with the prosecutor, or at your election, the case can proceed to trial. There are no additional penalties or consequences for failing to complete the diversion program.
Listening to Limbaugh is like paying attention to the old drunk/addict at a busstop, the one babbling an incoherent non-stop stream of nonsense.
You righties must have all had lobotomies to tune in to this clown, and worse, repeat his bullshit.
In many ways this is an oxymoron. Especially if we expand this comment to include the field of all righties, all the time.
“You righties must have all had lobotomies to tune in to this clown, and worse, repeat his bullshit.”
Hmmm.. Now WHY DIDN’T HE GO TO VIETNAM?
WAS IT A PIMPLE ON HIS ASS?
NO… A PILONIDAL CYST!!
Conditions in which it commonly occurs include obesity, body hair around the area in question, and a sedentary lifestyle
Very painful I hear.
Or maybe he was like Dickless Cheney who had “other priorities.”
Goldy’s got it right – the technology is threatening to leave SOME newspapers behind. I run a special-interest website myself, where I search newspapers online for relevant articles, and post links to them on my site (along with a short summary).
The problem I am running into is some dinosaur newspaper editers are so afraid that someone is “stealing” their content by reading the newspaper online, that they are trying to block access. Some are doing it fairly benignly by requiring registration, others are allowing access only by their subscribers! The latter policy was enacted by my hometown paper, which I had previously accessed online from time to time to read about the local news. But there is NO WAY I, or anyone else, is going to pay the full price for a newspaper 2,500 miles away which doesn’t even have to be printed & delivered!
But these dinosaur newspaper editors just don’t understand what they are missing – a ready audience from across the world, who can access news for the small price of being exposed to a bit of advertising alongside which can even be content-directed. Articles which are archived for a decade or more can still be selling products, for which advertisors will gladly pay if you can prove readership. With print media this could be proven only through subscription numbers, but on the internet it can be proven by “hits” or “page views”, electronically counted.
The new media model is more like a TV or Radio (free viewership in exchange for ad exposure) than it is for the traditional newspaper. But instead of being limited in exposure to a local community, and have the content quickly relegated to the compost heap, landfill, or bird cage, the content can stay available indefinately, informing readers and selling advertising all at the same time. And not just to a single city, but to the world.
Attempts by dinasaur newspaper editors to hold back the tide on this issue reminds me of the union rules which required newspapers to pay for type to be set and then broken each day, long after the technology made such techniques of printing obsolete. Newspaper management used to complain bitterly against such practices, but in trying to restrict their content from the internet, they are fighting the same battle – trying to hold back progress, like the child trying to fight the tide with a teaspoon.
Let’s talk about editorial judgment for a moment.
Maybe a few people go to a witch doctor when they’re ill, but most people go to a real doctor. Why? Because s/he has the training, knowledge, and experience to correctly diagnose the illness and prescribe the appropriate treatment.
A witch doctor doesn’t really know what’s wrong with you, or what to do about it, so all you get from a witch doctor is some mysticism that probably won’t do anything one way or the other for your health. If you get better, it’s because natural healing took its course, or you were just dumb-lucky.
Professional news editors save our time by sifting through a mass of information for us, and to decide what events are significant enough to be worthy of our time and attention. Like doctors, we pay them to get it right, and they have the training, knowledge, and experience to do it correctly.
Wingnuts largely reject the editorial judgments of MSM, because the editors insist on producing a professionally competent product instead of spoon-feeding these rabid partisans the propaganda they want to hear in order to reaffirm their cherised (but false) beliefs. That’s the same thing as rejecting a doctor’s advice and going to a witch doctor for medical treatment, or rejecting a stockbroker’s advice and going to a tarot card reader for investment advice.
You get what you pay for.
This is an interesting media discussion. I think that trained journals are a valuable part of the political process. The problem is how to pay for their services. I don’t buy into the MSM vs. blog dichotomy; the future of sophisticated political reporting may very well reside in smaller-scale multi-media journals that don’t have to dumb down their content for a mass readership.
I really like the Talking Points Memo model, not so much because of the ideological perspective but for the versatility of its structure. Here is a “blog” that has a handful of paid, professional reporters doing original work while also provided commentary on MSM coverage and — most interestingly — using its readers as collectors of information.
We need something like this in Washington state. Done right, it could make a huge splash. It will take tradeskill, money and a clear vision. Maybe I’m out of circulation, but I don’t see this mix of qualities in current blogs.
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“Due to the new media, especially talk radio, people know the truth now.” Commentby Mark The Redneck— 4/28/06@ 4:11 pm
Redneck, the only thing you’re getting from what you call “new media” is propaganda. You’re drinking lie-laced kool-aid.
Hey Redneck can you tell me ONE THING Bush has said in the last five years that turned out to be true.
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What it boils down to is that Rush is a probation violater — like that teacher chick who contacted her 14-year-old victim after being ordered not to by a court.
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“The problem is how to pay for their services. I don’t buy into the MSM vs. blog dichotomy”
The critical issue here is not the medium, size of organization, or brand name but whether bloggers qualify as “journalists” by reason of professionalism, knowledge and ability, adherence to journalistic canons of truth and integrity, etc. Anyone can be a journalist, if they know how to be a journalist, and conduct themselves like a journalist.
In the 1970s, a tiny weekly newspaper in Marin County, California called “The Point Reyes Light” was owned by a man named Dave Mitchell, who doggedly investigated a group calling itself “Synanon” which appeared to be a benign drug-rehab program but in fact was a dangerous cult. All of California’s major dailies avoided covering Synanon because of libel threates from the group, but Mitchell persisted — even though he risked his life in doing so. (Ex-members of Synanon had been brutally beaten, and an attorney who had sued the group for abducting a woman narrowly survived being bitten by a rattlesnake placed in his mailbox by cult members.) Mitchell and the Point Reyes Light were awarded a Pulitzer Prize — possibly the smallest newspaper ever to receive the Pulitzer. Quality, not quantity, defines what you are. Mitchell was a “journalist,” and the Point Reyes Light was a “newspaper.”
Now let me ask you, Redneck — has Drudge won a Pulitzer? How about Free Republic? Fox News? Sound Politics? … etc.
They give Pulitzers to journalists. They don’t give them to propagandists. And yes, the Seattle Times has won Pulitzers, as has the Seattle P-I. The P-I’s editorial cartoonist, Dave Horsey, has won a Pulitzer.
Did the Swift Boat Veterans win a Pulitzer for their “reporting” on the “truth” about John Kerry’s military service? Not fucking likely.
Do you know the origin of the pulitzer? Joseph Pulitzer bought the sleepy New York World newspaper. He changed the whole for mat so that instead of reporting news factually, he made it into stories with characters and plots and intrigue. It was the beginning of the dumbed down media that we see today.
So it’s no honor to get a prize named after a guy who destroyed real reporting. In fact it’s an honor NOT to if you’re really interested in reporting what actually happened and not interjecting your views and a librul bias.
Roger @ 29: I completely agree with you. We need more real journalists in Washington state. There is soooo much that goes uncovered or undercovered, particularly in state government.
For the last decade the state’s major dailies have been cutting back their capital bureau coverage to the point where little more is reported than the raciest stories (e.g., another DSHS foster care “scandal”). The less the electorate knows about how their government operates, the easier it is for demogogues like Eyman (or Mr. Cynical) to turn complex problems into simple ones.
We need to find ways to fund experienced journalists who aren’t afraid to cover the real stories. I’m a bit perplexed as to why this hasn’t happened yet in a state with so many well-educated and civically active people.
Notice how to quality of the conversation elevates a good 30 IQ points when you ignore the trolls?
We need local television that covers more than car wrecks, murders, and fires. TV is where most people get their news. Many people I speak with think that they really need to know about the trivia that passes as TV news on a local level.
Poon – Interesting comment… I don’t know ANYBODY who gets their “news” from TV.
I hope the newspapers survive because the “new media” we have come to know, love and take for granted is actually very fragile. There are several strong forces presently at work, including:
(1.) The Bush administration’s growing realization that the lefy bloggers might actually do them some damage, combined with their full awareness that by controlling the domain naming service, they can turn any Web site off at their pleasure.
(2.) The corporate giants of the entertainment media, and a few major software companies like Microsoft, who are using political muscle (read that: bribery) to engineer a legal transformation of the Internet into “the new television” i. e. a one-way pipeline into our brains for the pabulum they wish to feed us, and a reverse pathway for money to migrate from our pockets to theirs.
(3.) The “christian” right’s insane obsession with imposing their idea of “decency” upon all of us.
(4.) The owners of the wires (the telecom companies) rapidly coalescing into a new telecommunications monopoly, which absent any competent regulation, will put the squeeze on all of us to pay dearly for every single bit that passes through them.
It’s quite likely that the print media will be all that’s left, and precisely because it *won’t* be centralized, it will be more difficult for any individual or organization to control or eliminate it.
Hey, Mark the Thieving Redneck,
What the hell are you doing on the HA comment threads? Does this mean you have made good on your bet with Goldy?
I mean, why would you show up on Goldy’s blog after stealing $100 from him?
“Due to the new media, especially talk radio, people know the truth now. We know the lies. We see the spin. And we’re not buying it.”
That is just fantastic!
Mary The Redneck… is 32% approval not low enough for you?
Keep spinning the talking points.
Bush could always match the 29% his dad claimed.
But you are correct in a way.
“people know the truth now. We know the lies. We see the spin. And we’re not buying it.”
That explains the open hatred the people of the USA have for Bush, the Republican congress, and the Iraq war.
Good job, Mary!
20.
What’s the contradiction or incongruity?
Anti-Pulitzer @31
Precious! Our resident anti-intellectual trollfuck attempts to debunk Pulitzer Prizes by attacking old man Pulitzer. So classically wingnut! Yeah, I guess a Nobel Peace Prize doesn’t mean a thing — after all, Alfred Nobel invented DYNAMITE, which is used for BLOWING THINGS UP.
I guess if we follow Redneck’s reasoning to it’s logical conclusion, the GOP ought to be renamed the Labor Party because, after all, it was founded by abolitionists who wanted to end slavery.
The GOP is the Cheap Labor Party, because it’s full of CHEAP LABOR CONSERVATIVES.
” … what do these guys consider to be ‘tyranny’. …
“’Social spending’ otherwise known as ‘redistribution’. While they don’t mind tax dollars being used for killing people, using their taxes to feed people is ‘stealing’.
“Minimum wage laws.
“Every piece of legislation ever proposed to improve working conditions, including the eight hour day, OSHA regulations, and even Child Labor laws.
“Labor unions, who ‘extort’ employers by collectively bargaining.
“Environmental regulations and the EPA.
“Federal support and federal standards for public education.
“Civil rights legislation. … Apparently, federal laws ending segregation were ‘tyranny’, but segregation itself was not.
“Public broadcasting – which is virtually the only source for classical music, opera, traditional theatre, traditional American music, oh yes, and Buckley’s ‘Firing Line’. This from the people constantly braying about the decay of ‘the culture’. The average cost of Public Television for each American is a whopping one dollar a year. …
“See the pattern? Cheap-labor conservatives support every coercive and oppressive function of government, but call it ‘tyranny’ if government does something for you ….”
http://www.conceptualguerilla......php?id=103
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Unfortunately, the print medium is largely centralized in that many of America’s important newspapers are controlled by a handful of big media companies.
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“We need local television that covers more than car wrecks, murders, and fires. TV is where most people get their news. Many people I speak with think that they really need to know about the trivia that passes as TV news on a local level.” Commentby harry poon— 4/28/06@ 10:32 pm
KING 5 had a good news department when Dorothy Bullitt owned and ran the station. It hit the skids after tabloid broadcaster Belo acquired it, and there’s now virtually no serious reporting on KING 5, just crime blotter fare for the zombie masses. Belo, a publicly traded company, isn’t doing so hot financially. One can only hope for their quick demise.
Interesting how young Blethen touts the trust advantage of traditional publishing.
IIRC, the Seattle Times distinguished itself by non-coverage of the Shoreline symposium at which Ambassador Joseph Wilson boosted the term “frog-marched” into the popular newsreaders’ lexicon.
And the Seattle Times continues to distinguished itself by crossing news and editorial axes, editorializing in news items by mislabeling estate taxes as “death taxes” — grinding the Blethen family’s favorite axe against a public policy inconvenient to its own traditionl of intergenerational transfers.
Trust can be earned … as can distrust. The blogosphere gives readers a wide choice of public editors, and readers will vote with their eyeballs.