Newspapers, R.I.P.

"The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years."

The above is the lead sentence in a story from editorandpublisher.com now linked on Drudge.

Is there any present reason for newspaters to exist?  Nope.  You can't rely on them for "news".  The big ones, like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, St.Louis Post Dispatch, Seatte whatever, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Washington Post, etc. now hardly even conceal that they have an AGENDA that inflences everythint they print--not just the editorial page.  Even the Wall Street Jornal long ago fell into this trap on everything BUT the editorial page.

The smaller papers rely on the truly despicable Associated Press for national and international "news", which means that you are getting AP propaganda from them, as well,  The desicable Associated Press, besides helping do in newspapers, is also a rot nibbling at the core of other "news" sources, including AOL, cable TV (yes--as I have shown repeatedly--Fox News is part of this problem), and even Drudge.  The saving grace for Drudge--even more than Fox News--is the VARIETY of sources used by Drudge, and linked on Drudge.   That makes drudgereport.com a MUCH superior source of "news" than AOL, and actually much superior to Fox News. 

Yes, the internet has pretty much doomed newspapers to go the way of the horse and buggy.  But newspapers have done NOTHING to try to justify their existence.  

Even as to local "news", the leftist cancer of "journalism" schools has pretty much eliminated newspapers as a reliable source of ANY kind of "news".  Newspapers have virtually committed suicide at the same time the internet, and the electronic revolution, have threatened to kill them off.

I used to religiously read newspapers--even more than one.  The experience used to be much more satisfying than the expeience of the hyper-hype of cable TV or the internet.  In a way, I miss that experience.  But I have not regularly read ANY newspaper in some two decades, and I don't miss theexperience of reading TODAY'S newspapers.  That is an experience I would not wish on my worst enemies.

I don't think many people are going to mourn the demise of today's newspapers.  I know I won't.

In fact, the whole ikea of professional "news"--of the type of the old Huntley-Brinkley report, is dying--or dead.  Agenda and hype are everything, everywhere.  There is NO real source of objective, factual news anymore.  I actually think Fox News is "balanced", and that Druge gives you enough variety so that an intelligent person can get an idea of what is really going on.  It is absurd, however, to suggest that either is even attempting to give people the FACTUAL NEWS.

Too bad.  My headline should have been "Journalism, R.I.P.".   That might be worth mourning.  Today's newspapers, or even other "news" sources, are not.