Goodbye To The Age Of Newspapers

(Hello to a New Era of Corruption)

by Paul Starr - March 04, 2009 [publication date, post date 2/19] - The New Republic

"Why American politics and society are about to be changed for the worse."

Should we care? Some observers, confident of the blessings of technology, refuse to shed any tears for the traditional giants of journalism, on the grounds that their troubles are of their own making and of little consequence to the general welfare. In this view, regardless of whether newspapers successfully adapt to the Internet, new and better sources of news will continue developing online, and they will fill whatever void newspapers leave. Others are so angry at the mainstream media--the reviled "MSM"--that they see the economic misery of the press as a deserved comeuppance. Let the bastards suffer.

The author does his best to convince his readers that this last position is wrong. Clearly he does not see that socialist tyranny, fostered by the extreme left wing bigots who dominate our newspapers, is worse than what he thinks will happen when news is not written by these liars of the left.

The 'corruption' that the author fears is free enterprise itself. Though not perfect, its shortcomings have proven repeatedly to be better for society and individual freedom than the government goon power of socialist solutions. No Stalinist purges have left millions dead here in America because we are a free society. Conversely, newspapers, with their love of socialism have evolved to the point that little gets reported but a litany of liberal lies. I am definitely of the school that accepts "let the bastards suffer" as the preferred outcome for our left wing dominated newspapers.