That Just Doesn't Work For Me

The fall of the American newspaper continues

You may have heard that The New York Times refused to print an editorial by the Republican candidate John McCain even though the Times printed one by the Marxist candidate, Barry the Kid, just last week. The Times was caught a bit off guard, however, when the McCain speech ended up on The Drudge Report so that every American who is interested in a free and fair election could read it for themselves and make their own decision about the views of Senator McCain. It is clear from the reaction of the New York Times that they did not consider the possibility that the editorial that they tried to censor would still get out to the American people via New Media.

David Shipley, editor at the Times, offered a lame excuse in an email to the McCain campaign that the editorial was not up to their standards:

'It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece. To that end, the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq.'

'The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information (it appeared before his speech); while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans.'

'I'm not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.' 'I'd be pleased, though, to look at another draft.'

One could, of course, make a point about the obvious bias of The Elite Media Monoculture that is on display here in its most naked form. And many people have done just that to the embarrassment of David Shipley and the Times. But there is also a financial aspect to this that should be considered. Because the bias of the Times and other newspapers and media like it is not without consequences for the bottom line.

Just recently The Wall Street Journal reported that the Tribune company would be cutting staff at The L.A. Times, which they own, by 15%. The New York Times has seen similar cuts. Liberal and left leaning newspapers around the country have been seeing rapid and catastrophic declines in their readership and corresponding ad revenue over the last decade or so. The fact of the matter is that the overwhelming bias and contempt that leftist elites at these newspapers have for conservatives and average Americans is all to clear to the rest of us. The elites don't believe that they have any such tilt in their views of course, but for the rest of us there is a cause and effect nonetheless. And as a result we are not buying their product from them any longer. As consumers of information, those of us who want news reporting that is fair and accurate are not being served by dinosaur media either in print or on television. And we are taking our attention and dollars elsewhere.

If you are a lefty news journalist, ask yourself where all those readers went. Do you think they moved to Jupiter or something? But most elite media mavens do not have the intelligence or honesty to ask themselves this question. The answer would be far too painful. And so they go on like robots marching to the cliff with no ability to alter their liberal programming or change their final destination.

Of course it ought to be clear to the people who are running things at these companies that they have a problem and that they have driven away a significant block of consumers. And when you drive away a large number of your customers, ad revenue goes with them because they are not there to look at the ads any longer. Advertisers are noticing this and pulling their products out and putting them elsewhere. And this, in turn, means lost jobs at those very same newspapers. But the editors at papers like The New York Times refuse to see the connection between their leftist bias and the continuing collapse of their ancient empires of propaganda.

From personal experience I can say that this fall off in readers is having a deleterious effect on their ability to even get their papers put together and out the door. Where I work we do some small jobs for a newspaper whose name you would know. The part that I work with as a graphic artist has seen more and more technical problems recently. And they have had more difficultly getting us the materials that we need on time. The materials that we need in order to do our jobs have been arriving later and later with more and more errors. Under such circumstances it becomes ever more difficult to correct simple printing problems and get the job done on time and to the press. And if it is happening in this one small area, it must be happening to other papers in similar circumstances across the country. This sends a very serious message about the state of American newspapers. And it could be so easily solved if they would simply admit their bias and do something to balance their product and make it attractive once more to those readers who have left for greener pastures.

But the editors at The New York Times see the loss of jobs, readers and ad revenue and they do nothing to question whether their own actions and the nature of the content that they continue to spew might have anything to do with their situation. It is, apparently, beyond their ability or willingness to question their own wisdom or superiority over all of the rest of us. And so the fall of American newspapers and leftist media continues without relief.