“The news industry has deliberately alienated anything up to half its potential audience, as seen by the comments on here. Has there ever been an industry which committed commercial suicide in this way, turning its former customers into active enemies?” *
Just another unionized industry committing suicide.
Like the Big 3 and the UAW
“the Wall Street Journal (9/27/2007):
“The problem with unions is not all that dissimilar to that posed by entrenched management: Once they win comfortable contracts, they often become impediments to the kind of innovation and flexibility essential to success in today’s economy. So in the name of “job security,” they undermine a company’s — or a nation’s — competitiveness. The result, over time, is less job security for everyone, especially the union workforce. There’s no better example of this than GM, where the UAW now represents about 74,000 hourly workers, compared to 246,000 in 1994. Some security.”
Bottom Line: Gains in the short run of higher-than-market wages and benefits, and greater job security, eventually undermine the companies employing unionized workers, destroying hundreds of thousands of union jobs in the long run (172,000 UAW jobs lost at GM alone). The more success a union has in the short-run, the greater the failure in the long run. The discipline of the market eventually dominates and prevails.
Originally posted on September 29, 2007.
rtr http://mjperry.blogspot.com/
No doubt the “professional” journalists, editors, owners feel they are “owed one”, and I expect to see them take their place near the head of the bailout queue.
With having actively helped to construct a political Grand Slam, there are no Republicans to kick around any more. Upon whom will they place blame if anything to goes wrong? (and hey, what could possibly go wrong with such Right People at the helm?)
No soup for them.
How do you spell PRAVDA in English? New York Times.
New York Times stock continues its glide path into the crapper, made $6.54 a share a couple minutes ago.
Kind of like watching a dinosaur bleed out, the front part is still eating even though the back part is already starting to smell funny.
Anybody out there who still owns this thing is completely mental. SELL IT! Well, if you can find a buyer anyway.
Good point Fred.
In Saskatchewan I have coined the phrase “What’s good for the NDP is bad for Saskatchewan”. I came to this conclusion using similar reasoning to yours. The provincial NDP neglected the issue of a whole generation(x) moving away in order to maintain the public employee: population ratio. Short term gains of holding office at the expense of the economy and the province eventually cost the party. People started moving to Saskatchewan, the % of public employee’s dropped, the revenue for the province went up and we have a conservative government. As things look up for Saskatchewan times get worse for the NDP. This analogy works well for any socialist organization and the environment the operate in.
“With having actively helped to construct a political Grand Slam, there are no Republicans to kick around any more. Upon whom will they place blame if anything to goes wrong? ”
I’ll lay odds that we start seeing American media blaming Stephen Harper and his Conservatives for something in the not too distant future.
The ties between the Canadian and U.S. media are much closer than you think. Have you ever seen Don Newoman and Dan Rather together? Jim Travesty and Michael Moore? Doppelgangers?
In fact, I have it on quite good authority that Jim Travesty , Don Newoman, Jeffy Simple and Giggles were very helpful in showing the American MSM how to properly fellate a Political Leader/Party on a regular basis.
Kate, you should have a death-watch ticker on this thing. It’d be fun watching the pterodactyl glide down, lower and lower until it suddenly HITS and rolls up in a ball of busted guts.
I really don’t like those guys, eh? ~:D
May I again share my response from Ottawa Sun “journalist”, Michael Harris, when I called him on repeating the “I thought Africa was one country” lie attributed to Sarah Palin? I will anyway. He attacks me but fails to even try to refute my complaint, which I admit was offered in a none too friendly manner.
Mr. Harris says …
what a pathetic attempt at communication. you are quite the boyo to be talking about graciousness. your note is pure ugliness. as for your judgeship of intelligence, i am very grateful that you believe caribou barbie is more intelligent than i am. very relieved indeed. now please direct your next toilet flush to the nutbar right wing cry in the beer web site of your choice.
Is this the “beer web site” of my choice? I dunno.
But then again, this master of the english language who is sooooo much smarter than “caribou barbie” has apparently appointed me to a “judgeship”. Cool!
One thing you will note if you listen to Michael Harris long enough on his CFRA Ottawa radio call-in show, ducktrapper, is that he hates to be called out on anything. He has quite the short fuse, Mikey does. Nothing ignites it quicker than someone positing a logical riposte to his comments or pointing out that he is dead wrong on some issue.
That would not surprise me, JMD. I’m not sure if it’s to my credit but I actually refrained from pointing out to him that, according to his official mugshot, he appears to have joined ‘the men who look like old lesbians’ club. I hope he doesn’t refer to all his critics as “your judgship” though. I would prefer to be alone in having that unusual honourific.
The MSM’s Sycophantic Sucking Up to Obama is a Bailout Strategy.
I blogged about this a few days ago. The leftist MSM know they have no long-term chance of survival unless they get financial help. MSNBC, CNBC, and NBC are already angling for a bailout. GE owns them, and GE Capital, another division, is trying for bailout money. Of course, GE could raise cash by selling the failing NBC group, but instead they go to Washington, hat in hand.
No way McCain/Plain would bail out the MSM, but there is a pretty good chance that Obama would do it. The leftists MSM can cogently argue that they were vital in electing Obama, and now it’s time for some payback. The deal may have been done before the election.
The NYT will be dead by Spring ’09 without resuscitation, CNN is sick (so they run features about Obama’s friend Ayers)… All are in deep trouble, but if Obama rescues them, he would have his own very powerful propaganda wing.
This is the only explanation I have about why the leftist MSM would deliberately alienate about 1/2 their customers. Sucking up to Obama is their last best chance to save their own skins.
Pro Patria
Oooh boy, that is rich. All these morons supporting a leftard like Obama whose own party is responsible for the financial downturn that is killing their jobs. This is the best show on Earth, and I am Loving it. Buh duh buh buh buuuh.
Just like I heard on the radio the other day…A small business owner was going to have to lay off employees and the one’s he was picking to lay off?…drum roll please….”The one’s with Obama bumper stickers on their cars!!” Love it.
No wonder leftards are scared of guns. If they had guns they’d be shooting themselves.
Who’d be interested in buying T-shirts that said “Don’t feed the liberals.” with a picture of a homeless man in the gutter with the old fashioned fedora with a PRESS card in it.
Speaking of alienating audiences, why does Canada’s flagship right-wing newspaper continue to call itself the ‘National’ Post when it is essentially unavailable for sale in 6 of 10 of the nation’s provinces, thanks to low consumer demand?
Clearly, the market has spoken, and this paper speaks neither to nor for very many people in Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Manitoba or Saskatchewan.
And yet this paper without a national audience calls itself the ‘National’ Post.
What gives?