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February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
January 6, 2012
January 5, 2012
Tom A. Peter: Taliban talks: In administration's push to negotiate with terrorists, was a key hurdle overlooked?
Pete Spotts: Time cloaking: How scientists opened a hidden gap in time
Karen Kaplan: Teens aren't too old to boost their IQ, study finds
January 4, 2012
Scott Baldauf: Islamist terror group giving Christians living in north Nigeria days to flee
Howard LaFranchi : An accelerating covert war with Iran: Could it spiral into military action?
January 3, 2012
Tom A. Peter: Release several Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay; give them headquarters as confidence-building measure?
Elaine Woo: Thomas T. Johnson, L.A. judge who ruled that Holocaust was a fact, dies at 88
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Jewish World Review
Jan. 4, 2004
/ 24 Teves, 5765
Newspaper sale$ decline should be blamed on the journos
By
Jack Kelly
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The best editor in America today isn't a journalist. He's Glenn Harlan
Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, also known as the
"Instapundit." He's endangering my livelihood.
I used to say that I was in a declining industry, but fortunately, I was
declining faster than it was. Now I'm not so sure.
Last year was a lousy year for newspapers. Circulation was stagnant, or
dropped, at two thirds of all dailies in America, including such biggies as
the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times, where
readership is in free fall.
Most years recently have been bad years for newspapers. In 1950, 123
percent of households subscribed to a newspaper. (One household in five
subscribed to more than one paper.) Today the figure is less than 53
percent.
Circulation declines may be larger than these numbers indicate. Four big
newspapers the Chicago Sun Times, the Dallas Morning News, Long Island's
Newsday, and the Spanish language newspaper Hoy have admitted supplying
bogus numbers to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.
The evening newscasts on network television have been losing viewers even
faster than newspapers have been shedding readers. Audiences for the
nightly news on ABC, NBC and CBS have fallen 59 percent from their peak in
1969. At dinner time in 1980, 75 percent of all television sets in use were
tuned to one of the three nightly newscasts. Last year, barely more than
one in five were.
Worse times are head. Senior citizens are, by far, the most reliable
newspaper readers and watchers of broadcast television news. The younger
people get, the less likely they are to subscribe to newspapers or watch Dan
or Peter or Brian. When our current crop of seniors dies off in five or ten
years, we're going to be in a world of hurt.
We have a technological problem. The "news cycle" is now 24/7. Because of
production and distribution costs, it's impractical to put out a newspaper
more than once a day. This means that much of what we report as "news" is
really "olds" to that portion of our subscribers who watch television,
listen to radio, or go online.
The broadcast networks which exist chiefly to provide entertainment are used to providing us with news at a time that is convenient to them, a
half hour in the early evening. The cable news networks provide news
updates constantly throughout the day and well into the night.
If our only problem were technological, newspapers would still be in pretty
good shape. Radio and television deprived us of the ability to give you
breaking news first. But since all you can get in a couple of minutes on the
hour and half hour is the headlines, and all the copy in a half hour
television newscast would barely fill a single newspaper column, we still
had a large lead in providing depth and context to the news.
That's where our trust problem kicks in. Journalists rank near the bottom
of the professions in honesty and ethical standards, according to Gallup's
annual survey. Last year, only 21 percent of respondents said newspaper
reporters had high or very high ethical standards.
An awful lot of you don't trust us to get our facts straight, to tell both
sides of the story, or to put the news in context. For that, more and more
of you are turning to web logs, or "blogs." There were hardly any blogs
five years ago. There are more than four million today. There could be
eight million by the next election.
Blogs provided you with information we in the "mainstream" media didn't want
you to have, such as John Kerry's "Christmas in Cambodia," and the fact that
the documents on which Dan Rather and CBS were relying for a hit piece on
President Bush's National Guard service were forgeries.
Journalists tend not to like bloggers, because they report on errors we
make. Dan Rather and former New York Times editor Howell Raines are
unemployed chiefly because of the vigilance and tenacity of bloggers. (We
journalists rarely turn the spotlights we use on business leaders and
government officials on ourselves.)
People who work at journalism full time ought to be able to do a better job
of it than people for whom it is a hobby. But that's not going to happen as
long as we "professional" journalists ignore stories we don't like and try
to hide our mistakes. We think of ourselves as "gatekeepers." But there is
not much future in being a gatekeeper when the walls are down.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and the media consider must-reading. Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a
deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan
administration. Comment by clicking here.
Jack Kelly Archives
© 2005, Jack Kelly
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