[HAM] OT: "Welcome to the future"

[Alan Lenhoff]

This is horribly off-topic, but as a newspaper employee, I can't let it pass.
 
I'm not sure whether your smiley means you're being tongue-in-cheek.  But I do hear a lot of people saying we ought to let newspapers die since we can get all the news we need electronically.  This is kind of like saying that we don't need farms, because grocery stores are full of fruits and vegetables.  I'd say that 95% of the news you get from TV, radio and the Net originated with newspaper reports that were made available to other media via Associated Press and other news services.  Even the bloggers are mostly sitting on their duffs, commenting on what they read in major newspapers. No other medium has even a small fraction of the reporting resources of newspapers.
 
And since people think it's their God-given right to access news free on the web, I don't think an electronic news source is going to find a way to employ the nearly 600 journalists who now work in my building covering my community. But maybe they can afford six, huh?
 
If newspapers die, the quality and volume of news available through all sources will slow to a trickle.  Big issue for the next generation, IMHO. A real recipe for ignorance, if not tyranny.
 
BTW, newspapers aren't cutting down rain forests to print papers.  Much newsprint these days is recycled, and the rest comes from tree farms that are harvested and replanted.  It's a renewable resource.
 
(End of rant. And, yes, I feel better for getting that off my chest!)  ;-)
 
Alan


--- On Thu, 7/10/08, Steve patterson <stevenfpatterson at msn.com> wrote:

From: Steve patterson <stevenfpatterson at msn.com>
Subject: Re: [HAM] hammond Digest, Vol 10, Issue 188
To: hammond at zeni.net
Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008, 5:02 PM

> Message: 17> Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:16:00 -0700> From: Scott
Hawthorn <organfreak at donobi.net>> Subject: Re: [HAM] A hammond
vacation>>>>>>>
 
>>>>>(Problem with Craigslist is it's one of the main things
putting newspapers out of business.)
 
But look at all the trees that will be saved..not to mention the carbon
footprint issue... B-) 
No one driving to a central building every day to make something that can be
gotten via computer.
Welcome to the Future....
Steve in PA
 
 
 
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