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February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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
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Jewish World Review
March 30, 2005
/ 19 Adar II, 5765
The scandalous Internet
By
Tony Blankley
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's not only the top of the market old media like CBS and the
New York Times that are under assault. In the last few days there have been
stories about the travails of the National Enquirer and the New York Daily
News' gossip columnist, Liz Smith, drowning in the digital storm.
It seems the Enquirer has lost a cool million readers per
edition in circulation over the last eight years down to 1.5 million over
its historic high of 4 million in the halcyon days of the 1970s.
Liz Smith, proud to be a gossip columnist a publicity agent
could do business with, is down to 70 newspapers for her syndicated column.
She cheerfully admits that she may be the last of the breed, and that it
would be nuts to pay the million bucks a year she pulls down for a new hot
print gossip columnist.
Unnamed Washington Post gossip staffers confess on background
that they spend their days reading Wonkette on the Internet scooping their
stories because she can be up as fast as she can type, while they have to
wait for the next day's Washington Post to be manufactured and shipped to
its distribution points almost a day after the hot rumor has already been
consumed by a ravenous public.
Is nothing sacred? Walter Winchell must be rotating in his
grave, considering that the noble work of print gossip is being usurped by
irresponsible digital gossips. In the old days, you could rely on printed
gossip to be a genuine, certified rumor or double entendre sexual reference.
(Have you noticed that there is invariably only one possible meaning to a
double entendre?)
But today, the public is being fed unreliable digital gossip.
What you read on an Internet gossip blog may not be a genuine rumor at all.
The blogger may have made up the rumor out of whole cloth (or, to update the
phrase, out of virgin electrons.)
Of course, its true that once the fabricated rumor (again, our
language is lagging behind our technology. Something made of whole cloth is
fabricated. But something made up of virgin electrons is "inputed" or
"uploaded" once the uploaded rumor has been downloaded, it becomes a
genuine rumor.
Still, there seems to be something more reliable, more
substantial, about rumors printed on paper. Behind that rumor stands a large
building filled with hundreds of employees paying federal state and local
taxes. The words used to make up the rumor weren't just typed, willy-nilly,
on some $50 keyboard. When print media was really print media, each letter
of each word of each sentence was cast in molten lead and assembled in large
trays.
Even today, a printed rumor is then processed by large printing
presses. The New York Times spent three quarters of a billion dollars a few
years ago to buy some new printing presses. These are machines that require
good relations with a major financial institution in order to acquire.
Compare that impressive sum with the paltry few dollars a month it takes to
bring a web server online.
The paper, measured by its tonnage, is delivered by train from
Georgia. Oxen could drown in the ink vats. Platoons of highly trained, often
unionized, press operators work around the clock to successfully bring the
paper, ink and words together to form a proper setting for a genuine,
certified rumor.
When those kinds of assets and those kinds of people are behind
a paper-printed rumor, a reader has solid grounds for relying on it.
But today, inexperienced youthful readers are willing to consume
cheaply produced rumors by unlicensed persons in their basements if they
even have basements. Knowing the type, they probably only have lofts. Having
a basement suggests a substantial building of multiple stories. But today's
decadent youth don't care from where they get their rumors. Just like the
steel and other heavy manufacturing industries, the paper-printed rumor
business is being hollowed out. Digital rumor manufacturing is to the rumor
industry what ten cents per month Chinese wage rates are to the steel
industry.
The impending death of the paper-printed rumor business should
be a warning to the news divisions of those papers. While the newspaper's
rumor department is at a competitive disadvantage with the digital rumor
blogs, the news departments actually have some advantages if they choose
to use them. Hundreds of trained reporters and editors, if they are
committed to objective news gathering, can actually produce more usable,
objective news each day than even the most hard-working blogger. But if they
print rumor and prejudice masquerading as news, they will surely go the way
of their official, certified rumor departments.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
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© 2005, Creators Syndicate
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