Posted by
John Finnigan on Sunday, April 05, 2009 1:49:33 PM
Why Save Newspapers?
I can’t figure out why.
I once had a friend whose father had a thriving business
repairing typewriters. He supported his family, purchased a home and put his
kids through college all on that skill. Today there are few, if any typewriter
repairmen making a descent living.
I also had several relatives who thanks to the United States
Navy learned to repair televisions, radios and most tube electronic devices.
They had fairly affluent middleclass shops where they sold televisions, repaired
televisions, bought and sold used televisions. Electronic geeks hung out at
such places and talked vacuum tubes, diode biasing and voltage rectification.
Both such businesses have for all purposes disappeared.
There may be some places left, but they generally are for collectors, hobbyists
and their ilk.
Technology passed both such businesses by, put them out of
business and everybody moved on.
Now, newspapers and magazines are in the crosshairs of
technology.
Liberals are sad about the demise of the print media because
by and large they controlled the print media. The print media’s replacement-the
World Wide Web-is a free wheeling world where information, accurate and
inaccurate, is distributed with lightening speed.
In the old media you had to try to hide your bias in enough
facts to pretend to be impartial. Today, you just tell people what you really
think.
To this fact I say long life freedom.