Saturday, August 16, 2008
As I shuffle through archived clips and bookmarks, I'm going to post a bunch of quotes here while figuring out which to use in my fall classes... Somehow a bunch of February and summer items wound up jumbled together in a folder... Intriguing juxtapositions...

Mark Bowden, in The Atlantic for July/August, chronicling Rupert Murdoch's arrival at the Wall Street Journal:

"A great frigate of high-minded journalism had just struck its colors to the Tabloid Pirate. The once-mighty, staid, studiously gray, independent Wall Street Journal was now a first cousin to Fox ('Fair and Balanced') News, Bart Simpson, the London daily Sun's Page Three titty displays, and the deliberately outrageous New York Post."

Louis Hau in Forbes. "Down on the Wire" in February:

"Do newspapers still need The Associated Press? And does The Associated Press still need newspapers?
Until recently, these would have been ridiculous questions. But print circulation is tumbling. So is advertising revenue. Editors are slashing budgets and making do with less. Readers are moving online, where they get all the national and international news, sports scores and celebrity gossip they can read--for free, updated constantly, and often by AP."

Roger Black, design guru, blogging in May:

"Newspapers have about a year to get rid of all the people who can't pull their own weight and to redeploy all the smart energetic journalists who can find the great stories and push them out to print, web and video. Some papers still have lots of talent, but they must push it to the front so readers can find it and find that they like it..."

Mark Glaser of PBS, interviewing experts on copyright and fair use last week:

"Many people complain that the U.S. air use rules are vague, and that copyright law hasn't really been updated for the digital age. How do you think the laws should be changed to help protect copyright holders while also respecting video remixes and fair use? Or do you think the laws are fine as is?"

Philip Meyer of UNC Chapel Hill, in a USA Today February oped:

"News media love conflict, and when religion and science clash in political arguments, they like to stoke the flame..."

Bob Giles of the Nieman Foundation, announcing two investigative reporting awards in the spring Nieman Reports:

"The press remains an essential national institution in its job of independently probing for facts about wrongdoing or information the government wants to shield from its citizens. Its watchdog role is never more vital than during a national crisis..."

Alan Mutter
, in a February blog entry, "Can newspapers afford editors?"

"All things being equal, everyone would vote for giving newspapers sufficient resources for both gathering news and checking their work closely. But things aren't equal. Newspapers are operating at an increasingly unequal disadvantage against their online competitors. While there is no doubt about the value of the industry's traditional values, the question is whether the industry can continue to afford them."




8:25:37 PM  #