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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Breaking up without consequences
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-11721-Houston-Dating-Psychology-Examiner~y2009m7d21-The-consequencefree-breakup
Is a break-up without consequences possible? Check out the latest article by Alicia Crowder as the Houston Psychology Dating Examiner for the Examiner E-zine.
The consequence-free break-up
The consequence-free break-up is a myth, however, not all break-ups have bad consequences. That is the case at least for one of the parties some of the time.
One thing that is difficult for many to understand is how painful a break-up can be for the person actually choosing the break-up when their partner does not want it, or at least will not admit that they want to split.
Being the bad guy or gal
It is never easy to be the bad guy or gal as the case may be. It isn't even easy to give up that which you may be comfortable with and enjoy in a relationship, simply because the other parts of it are not to your liking.
This is one reason why so many people wait until they have another relationship at the ready before they actually take the plunge and end their current romantic arrangement. This is, however, a very unloving act in and of itself.
Make a comparison
There are many consequences that result from a break-up, however, when looking at break-ups comparatively speaking, it is good to recognize what actually is, from the long-term perspective, the consequence-free break-up.
The reason this is important is that it may help an individual to stop beating themselves up over the decision to break up with their mate. There are from a very broad perspective, two basic types of break-ups.
The first is the break-up between two individuals who have sworn their love and devotion to one another and their intent to co-exist for the rest of their life on this planet as romantic partners who are to be wed.
The second is the break-up between two parties who have at this point developed absolutely no intention whatsoever of marrying the other person. Even in this second scenario, the break-up process is often extremely painful for both people involved.
It is important, in this instance, for both people to recognize that nothing more than their ego and schedule is actually being altered or affected by this break-up. This is actually not a break-up at all as so many over-dramatize it to be. It is an expected parting of ways. What is difficult is the timing of the fulfillment of this expectation.
The ego
The painful part of this is that for the one being broken up with, they experience a severely bruised ego when realizing that someone would prefer to spend their time away from them, rather than with them. The concept that the other person may have considered that someone else out in the world could better entertain them in any way, shape or form is a big hit to the ego and that is nearly always misconstrued as horrible pain.
For the one who is doing the breaking up, they also are feeling the loss of those times when they would really like to have a companion around, but may not for a while now. In addition to this, they may suffer a great deal of pain over the concept of causing suffering to the other person.
This is why it is so important to remind yourself in this instance of the fact that they were never planning to marry you anyway. The other party had already rejected the concept of spending the rest of their life with you. They had already been plotting that some day they should find someone who is a better match for them than you. Ultimately, you have done absolutely nothing more than speed up their process of beginning that search for their right "one."
Enjoy your life
Remember these facts and let the pain pass away from you. You will learn to occupy your time with friends, family and fun activities, if not another romantic interest after your current/past relationship is over.
Houston, Texas is filled with things to do and see if you are simply available to do and see them!
Is a break-up without consequences possible? Check out the latest article by Alicia Crowder as the Houston Psychology Dating Examiner for the Examiner E-zine.
The consequence-free break-up
The consequence-free break-up is a myth, however, not all break-ups have bad consequences. That is the case at least for one of the parties some of the time.
One thing that is difficult for many to understand is how painful a break-up can be for the person actually choosing the break-up when their partner does not want it, or at least will not admit that they want to split.
Being the bad guy or gal
It is never easy to be the bad guy or gal as the case may be. It isn't even easy to give up that which you may be comfortable with and enjoy in a relationship, simply because the other parts of it are not to your liking.
This is one reason why so many people wait until they have another relationship at the ready before they actually take the plunge and end their current romantic arrangement. This is, however, a very unloving act in and of itself.
Make a comparison
There are many consequences that result from a break-up, however, when looking at break-ups comparatively speaking, it is good to recognize what actually is, from the long-term perspective, the consequence-free break-up.
The reason this is important is that it may help an individual to stop beating themselves up over the decision to break up with their mate. There are from a very broad perspective, two basic types of break-ups.
The first is the break-up between two individuals who have sworn their love and devotion to one another and their intent to co-exist for the rest of their life on this planet as romantic partners who are to be wed.
The second is the break-up between two parties who have at this point developed absolutely no intention whatsoever of marrying the other person. Even in this second scenario, the break-up process is often extremely painful for both people involved.
It is important, in this instance, for both people to recognize that nothing more than their ego and schedule is actually being altered or affected by this break-up. This is actually not a break-up at all as so many over-dramatize it to be. It is an expected parting of ways. What is difficult is the timing of the fulfillment of this expectation.
The ego
The painful part of this is that for the one being broken up with, they experience a severely bruised ego when realizing that someone would prefer to spend their time away from them, rather than with them. The concept that the other person may have considered that someone else out in the world could better entertain them in any way, shape or form is a big hit to the ego and that is nearly always misconstrued as horrible pain.
For the one who is doing the breaking up, they also are feeling the loss of those times when they would really like to have a companion around, but may not for a while now. In addition to this, they may suffer a great deal of pain over the concept of causing suffering to the other person.
This is why it is so important to remind yourself in this instance of the fact that they were never planning to marry you anyway. The other party had already rejected the concept of spending the rest of their life with you. They had already been plotting that some day they should find someone who is a better match for them than you. Ultimately, you have done absolutely nothing more than speed up their process of beginning that search for their right "one."
Enjoy your life
Remember these facts and let the pain pass away from you. You will learn to occupy your time with friends, family and fun activities, if not another romantic interest after your current/past relationship is over.
Houston, Texas is filled with things to do and see if you are simply available to do and see them!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Clown K*llings Rampant In Eastern Malaysia
Clown Killings Rampant In Eastern Malaysia
In these 13 states and 3 territories in the country of Malaysia in Southeast Asia there has been a very strange problem with the murder of those in the clown profession.
Why the rampant killings making clowning such a dangerous profession in this lovely portion of the world?
It is rumored that a secret organization that was actually developed in the British Isles has transplanted itself to Eastern Malaysia to reek havoc on these would be circus successes.
The popularity of clowns was rising all across the globe a few years back and flamethrowers were beginning to lose the attention they believed that they rightfully deserved. As everyone knows, flamethrower organizations do not always include the most reputable folk and consequentially a clown-downing campaign began which was multi-faceted.
Besides creating public fear in the hearts of children and adults alike through the use of movies and story time, actual murders began to take place. Consider the infamous clown killings of 65.
Although laws were put in place to protect the red-nosed entertainers in many places around the world, this never occurred in the country of Malaysia.
“It seems clown-killing is a free sport in these parts nowadays.” Stated one observer of these horrendous acts.
If something isn’t done to stop this clown genocide from continuing, that Malaysia was once one of the clown capitols of the world will soon be a forgotten truth.
What a loss!
Content Writer
In these 13 states and 3 territories in the country of Malaysia in Southeast Asia there has been a very strange problem with the murder of those in the clown profession.
Why the rampant killings making clowning such a dangerous profession in this lovely portion of the world?
It is rumored that a secret organization that was actually developed in the British Isles has transplanted itself to Eastern Malaysia to reek havoc on these would be circus successes.
The popularity of clowns was rising all across the globe a few years back and flamethrowers were beginning to lose the attention they believed that they rightfully deserved. As everyone knows, flamethrower organizations do not always include the most reputable folk and consequentially a clown-downing campaign began which was multi-faceted.
Besides creating public fear in the hearts of children and adults alike through the use of movies and story time, actual murders began to take place. Consider the infamous clown killings of 65.
Although laws were put in place to protect the red-nosed entertainers in many places around the world, this never occurred in the country of Malaysia.
“It seems clown-killing is a free sport in these parts nowadays.” Stated one observer of these horrendous acts.
If something isn’t done to stop this clown genocide from continuing, that Malaysia was once one of the clown capitols of the world will soon be a forgotten truth.
What a loss!
Content Writer
Clown Killings Rampant In Eastern Malaysia
Clown Killings Rampant In Eastern Malaysia
In these 13 states and 3 territories in the country of Malaysia in Southeast Asia there has been a very strange problem with the murder of those in the clown profession.
Why the rampant killings making clowning such a dangerous profession in this lovely portion of the world?
It is rumored that a secret organization that was actually developed in the British Isles has transplanted itself to Eastern Malaysia to reek havoc on these would be circus successes.
The popularity of clowns was rising all across the globe a few years back and flamethrowers were beginning to lose the attention they believed that they rightfully deserved. As everyone knows, flamethrower organizations do not always include the most reputable folk and consequentially a clown-downing campaign began which was multi-faceted.
Besides creating public fear in the hearts of children and adults alike through the use of movies and story time, actual murders began to take place. Consider the infamous clown killings of 65.
Although laws were put in place to protect the red-nosed entertainers in many places around the world, this never occurred in the country of Malaysia.
“It seems clown-killing is a free sport in these parts nowadays.” Stated one observer of these horrendous acts.
If something isn’t done to stop this clown genocide from continuing, that Malaysia was once one of the clown capitols of the world will soon be a forgotten truth.
What a loss!
Content Writer
In these 13 states and 3 territories in the country of Malaysia in Southeast Asia there has been a very strange problem with the murder of those in the clown profession.
Why the rampant killings making clowning such a dangerous profession in this lovely portion of the world?
It is rumored that a secret organization that was actually developed in the British Isles has transplanted itself to Eastern Malaysia to reek havoc on these would be circus successes.
The popularity of clowns was rising all across the globe a few years back and flamethrowers were beginning to lose the attention they believed that they rightfully deserved. As everyone knows, flamethrower organizations do not always include the most reputable folk and consequentially a clown-downing campaign began which was multi-faceted.
Besides creating public fear in the hearts of children and adults alike through the use of movies and story time, actual murders began to take place. Consider the infamous clown killings of 65.
Although laws were put in place to protect the red-nosed entertainers in many places around the world, this never occurred in the country of Malaysia.
“It seems clown-killing is a free sport in these parts nowadays.” Stated one observer of these horrendous acts.
If something isn’t done to stop this clown genocide from continuing, that Malaysia was once one of the clown capitols of the world will soon be a forgotten truth.
What a loss!
Content Writer
Spork Lovers Everywhere Unite
In a previous article, I wrote about how "Everyone Hates Sporks." Well, apparently I was waaaay wrong! I didn't even know that so many people read my articles and blogs until I dogged sporks the way I did. I had such an overwhelming email response regarding my spork assassination article that I guess I must print a retraction.
Not everyone hates sporks. There, satisfied spork lovers???
By the way....Sporks still suck!
Not everyone hates sporks. There, satisfied spork lovers???
By the way....Sporks still suck!
Fascinating Article by David Simon about Death of Newspaper
This article by David Simon was posted in an online journal called "In These Times." This article makes a lot of very good points. I don't know about the conclusion that he came up with, but then again I am not yet all that versed in the goods and evils involved with non-profits.
At first I thought it was ironic that I was reading this "on-line." You will know what I mean when you start to read it. But then that really doesn't turn out to be a true irony as you read on and the article makes truly valid points....
Is it really any secret that source news is suffering from the popularity of relay news? What about the fact that the public is simply way less interested in real news anymore than they are in reading about whether or not Britney Spears wears panties with her skirt, whether she has gained weight, what happened on the last American Idol or any one of those "becoming stars" television shows.
What is considered good television, good in theatre and good news has all dramatically declined to where news that could make a difference in the world is left standing at the back of the class jumping up with its hand in the air saying...."I'm still here! I actually have some important stuff to say! Could we stop watching the cheerleading competition and pay attention to the fact that children are being beaten black and blue in the principle's office? Can we pay attention to the fact that five children just died of cianide poisoning? Is it possible that we could pay attention to the extinction of a species that was a year ago abundant in our own back yards? Does anyone care about anything important anymore???"
I would venture to say that people do care...but they are simply way too easily distracted and often a great percentage of people only care if it's popular to care. I don't think that this is new though. I think it has always been the case, but that in the past it was more popular to care about real issues....in some cases....certainly probably not in the 50's, but that's another story....
Here's the article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...
Death of the NewspapermanDon’t blame the Internet, the industry’s decline is self-inflicted.By David Simon
The captains of the newspaper industry, martyrs all, claim they were heroically serving democracy to their utmost, only to be undone by a cataclysmic shift in technology and the arrival of all things web-based. Partisans of new media, weblogs and Twitter assure us that American journalism has a perfectly fine future online and a great democratization in newsgathering is taking place.In my city, there is a technical term we often administer when claims are plainly contradicted by facts on the ground.
We note that the claimant is, for lack of a better term, full of it.High-end journalism is dying in America and, unless a new economic model is achieved, it will not be reborn on the Web or anywhere. The Internet is a marvelous tool and clearly the informational delivery system of our future, but thus far it does not deliver much first-generation reporting. Instead, it leeches that reporting from print publications, whereupon aggregating Web sites and bloggers contribute little more than repetition, commentary and froth.
Meanwhile, readers acquire news from the aggregators and abandon its point of origin, namely the newspapers and magazines themselves.In short, the parasite is slowly killing the host.It is nice to get stuff for free, of course. And it is nice that more people can have their say in new media.
And while some of our Internet commentary is—as with any unchallenged and unedited intellectual effort—rampantly ideological, ridiculously inaccurate and occasionally juvenile, some of it is also quite good, even original.I am not arguing against the Internet and all it offers. But you do not run into bloggers or so-called citizen journalists at city hall or in the courthouse hallways or at the bars and union halls where police officers gather. You do not see them nurturing and then pressing sources. You do not see them holding institutions accountable on a daily basis.
Why? Because high-end journalism—the kind that acquires essential information about our government and society in the first place—is a profession; it requires a daily, full-time commitment by trained men and women who return to the same beats day in and day out. I am offended to think that anyone, anywhere believes American institutions as insulated, self-preserving and self-justifying as police departments, school systems, legislatures and corporations can be held accountable by amateurs working without compensation, training or sufficient standing to make public officials even care to whom they are lying or from whom they are withholding information.The idea is absurd. Yet to read the claims of some new media advocates, you would think they need only bulldoze the carcasses of moribund newspapers aside and begin typing.
They don’t know what they don’t know—which is a dangerous state for any class of folk—and to those of us who do understand how subtle and complex good reporting can be, their ignorance is as embarrassing as it is seemingly sincere. Indeed, the very phrase “citizen journalist” strikes my ear as Orwellian.A neighbor who is a good listener and cares about people is a good neighbor; she is not in any sense a citizen social worker. Just as a neighbor with a garden hose and good intentions is not a citizen firefighter. To say so is a heedless insult to trained social workers and firefighters.‘Old’ media’s excuses So much for new media.
But what about old media? When a newspaper executive claims that his industry is an essential bulwark of society and it stands threatened by a new technology as of yet unready to shoulder the same responsibility, you may be inclined to empathize.But when that same newspaper executive then goes on to claim that the industry bears no blame, that it has merely been undone by new technologies, feel free to kick out his teeth.
At that point, he is as fraudulent as the most self-aggrandized blogger.I took a buyout in 1995. That’s 14 years ago, well before the Internet ever began to seriously threaten any aspect of the industry. That’s well before Craigslist and department store consolidation gutted the ad base, well before any of the current economic conditions applied.In fact, when newspaper chains began cutting personnel and content, their industry was one of the most profitable ever discovered by Wall Street money.
We know now—because bankruptcy has opened the books—that the Baltimore Sun eliminated its afternoon edition and trimmed nearly 100 editors and reporters while the paper was achieving 37 percent profits. In the years before the Internet deluge, men and women who might have made the Sun a vehicle for news and commentary strong enough to charge for its product online were ushered out the door so Wall Street could command short-term profits.Such short-sighted arrogance rivals that of Detroit in the 1970s, when automakers—confident that American consumers were mere captives—offered up Chevy Vegas, Pacers and Gremlins without the slightest worry that mediocrity would be challenged by better-made cars from Germany or Japan.
In short, my industry butchered itself and did so at the behest of Wall Street and the same unfettered, free-market logic that has proved so disastrous for so many American industries.Cash before qualityAnd the original sin of American newspapering lies, indeed, in going to Wall Street in the first place.When locally based, family-owned newspapers consolidated into publicly owned newspaper chains, a trust between journalism and the communities it served was betrayed.
Economically, the disconnect is now obvious. What do newspaper executives in Los Angeles or Chicago care whether readers in Baltimore have a better newspaper, especially when you can make more putting out a mediocre paper than a worthy one?The profit margin was all. And so, where family ownership might have been content with 10 or 15 percent profit, the chains demanded double that and more. And so, the cutting began—long before the threat of new technology was ever sensed.But editorially?
The newspaper chains brought an ugly disconnect to the newsroom and, by extension, to the community as well.A few years after the A.S. Abell Family sold the Baltimore Sun to the Times-Mirror newspaper chain, fresh editors arrived from out of town. They didn’t look upon Baltimore as essential terrain to be covered with consistency and explained in all its complexity year in and year out for readers who live their lives in Baltimore.
Why would they? They arrived from somewhere else, and if they could win a prize or two, they would be moving on to bigger and better opportunities within the chain.So, well before the arrival of the Internet, veteran reporters and homegrown editors took buyouts, newsbeats were dropped, and less and less of Baltimore and central Maryland were covered with rigor or complexity.In Baltimore, a city in which half the adult black males are without consistent work, the poverty and social services beat was abandoned.
In a town where the unions were imploding, the working class eviscerated and the bankruptcy of a huge steel manufacturer meant thousands were losing medical benefits and pensions, there was no longer a labor reporter. And though it is one of the most violent cities in America, the Baltimore courthouse went uncovered for more than a year and the declining quality of criminal casework in the state’s attorney’s office went largely ignored.Meanwhile, the editors used their manpower to pursue a handful of special projects—Pulitzer-sniffing.
The self-gratification of my profession does not come from covering a city and covering it well, from explaining an increasingly complex and interconnected world to citizens or from holding basic institutions accountable on a daily basis. It comes from someone handing you a plaque and taking your picture.The prizes meant little, of course, to actual readers. What might have mattered to them was comprehensive coverage of their region and its issues, with real insight, sophistication and consistency.Where 500 men and women once covered central Maryland, there are now 140. And the money required to make a great newspaper—including the R&D funding that might have anticipated and planned for the Internet revolution—went back to Wall Street, CEO salaries and big-money investors.
The editors took their prizes and got promoted; they’re probably on what passes for a journalism lecture circuit these days, offering heroic tales of past glory and jeremiads about the world they, in fact, helped to bring about.Financing future mediaIt might be too late for American newspapering. So much talent has been torn from newsrooms over the last two decades and the ambitions of the craft are now so crude, small-time and stunted it’s hard to imagine a turnaround.
Business Get Organized!
But if there is to be a renewal of the industry a few things are certain and obvious: The industry has to find a way to charge for online content. Yes, I have heard a rallying cry that information wants to be free. But information isn’t. It costs money to send reporters to London, Fallujah and Capitol Hill, and to send photographers with them, and to keep them there day after day.Second, Wall Street and free-market logic, after decades of gutting journalism, are not now suddenly the answer.
Raw, unencumbered capitalism is never the answer when a public trust or mission is at issue.If the last quarter century has taught us anything, it’s that free-market capitalism, absent social imperatives and responsible regulatory oversight can produce durable goods and services, glorious profits and little of lasting social value. Airlines, manufacturing, banking, real estate—is there a sector of the American economy where laissez-faire theories have not burned the poor and the consumer, while bloating the rich and mortgaging the very future of the industry itself?Similarly, there can be no serious consideration of public funding for newspapers. High-end journalism can and should bite any hand that tries to feed it, and it should bite a government hand most viciously.
Moreover, it is the right of every American to despise his local newspaper—for being too liberal or too conservative, for covering X and not covering Y, for spelling your name wrong when you do something notable and spelling it correctly when you are seen as dishonorable.And it is the birthright of every healthy newspaper to hold itself indifferent to such constant disdain and be nonetheless read by all. Because in the end, despite all flaws, there is no better model for a comprehensive and independent review of society than a modern newspaper.As love-hate relationships go, this is a pretty intricate one. An exchange of public money would pull both sides from their comfort zone and prove unacceptable to all.
Business Get Organized!
But a nonprofit model intrigues, especially if that model allows for locally-based ownership and control of news organizations. The government should pursue making a nonprofit status for newspapers and creating financial or tax-based incentives to facilitate the transfer of ailing newspaper chains to local nonprofits.Lastly, Congress should consider relaxing certain antitrust prohibitions with regard to the newspaper industry, so the Washington Post, the New York Times and other newspapers can sit down and openly discuss protecting their copyright from aggregators and plan an industry-wide transition to a paid, online subscriber base.
Whatever money comes will prove essential to hiring back some of the talent, commitment and institutional memory that has been squandered.Absent this basic and belated acknowledgment that content has value and content is what ultimately matters, I don’t think anything else can save professional journalism.
This article was adapted from testimony before the Senate subcommittee on communications, technology and the Internet on May 6, 2009.
Business Get Organized!
At first I thought it was ironic that I was reading this "on-line." You will know what I mean when you start to read it. But then that really doesn't turn out to be a true irony as you read on and the article makes truly valid points....
Is it really any secret that source news is suffering from the popularity of relay news? What about the fact that the public is simply way less interested in real news anymore than they are in reading about whether or not Britney Spears wears panties with her skirt, whether she has gained weight, what happened on the last American Idol or any one of those "becoming stars" television shows.
What is considered good television, good in theatre and good news has all dramatically declined to where news that could make a difference in the world is left standing at the back of the class jumping up with its hand in the air saying...."I'm still here! I actually have some important stuff to say! Could we stop watching the cheerleading competition and pay attention to the fact that children are being beaten black and blue in the principle's office? Can we pay attention to the fact that five children just died of cianide poisoning? Is it possible that we could pay attention to the extinction of a species that was a year ago abundant in our own back yards? Does anyone care about anything important anymore???"
I would venture to say that people do care...but they are simply way too easily distracted and often a great percentage of people only care if it's popular to care. I don't think that this is new though. I think it has always been the case, but that in the past it was more popular to care about real issues....in some cases....certainly probably not in the 50's, but that's another story....
Here's the article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...
Death of the NewspapermanDon’t blame the Internet, the industry’s decline is self-inflicted.By David Simon
The captains of the newspaper industry, martyrs all, claim they were heroically serving democracy to their utmost, only to be undone by a cataclysmic shift in technology and the arrival of all things web-based. Partisans of new media, weblogs and Twitter assure us that American journalism has a perfectly fine future online and a great democratization in newsgathering is taking place.In my city, there is a technical term we often administer when claims are plainly contradicted by facts on the ground.
We note that the claimant is, for lack of a better term, full of it.High-end journalism is dying in America and, unless a new economic model is achieved, it will not be reborn on the Web or anywhere. The Internet is a marvelous tool and clearly the informational delivery system of our future, but thus far it does not deliver much first-generation reporting. Instead, it leeches that reporting from print publications, whereupon aggregating Web sites and bloggers contribute little more than repetition, commentary and froth.
Meanwhile, readers acquire news from the aggregators and abandon its point of origin, namely the newspapers and magazines themselves.In short, the parasite is slowly killing the host.It is nice to get stuff for free, of course. And it is nice that more people can have their say in new media.
And while some of our Internet commentary is—as with any unchallenged and unedited intellectual effort—rampantly ideological, ridiculously inaccurate and occasionally juvenile, some of it is also quite good, even original.I am not arguing against the Internet and all it offers. But you do not run into bloggers or so-called citizen journalists at city hall or in the courthouse hallways or at the bars and union halls where police officers gather. You do not see them nurturing and then pressing sources. You do not see them holding institutions accountable on a daily basis.
Why? Because high-end journalism—the kind that acquires essential information about our government and society in the first place—is a profession; it requires a daily, full-time commitment by trained men and women who return to the same beats day in and day out. I am offended to think that anyone, anywhere believes American institutions as insulated, self-preserving and self-justifying as police departments, school systems, legislatures and corporations can be held accountable by amateurs working without compensation, training or sufficient standing to make public officials even care to whom they are lying or from whom they are withholding information.The idea is absurd. Yet to read the claims of some new media advocates, you would think they need only bulldoze the carcasses of moribund newspapers aside and begin typing.
They don’t know what they don’t know—which is a dangerous state for any class of folk—and to those of us who do understand how subtle and complex good reporting can be, their ignorance is as embarrassing as it is seemingly sincere. Indeed, the very phrase “citizen journalist” strikes my ear as Orwellian.A neighbor who is a good listener and cares about people is a good neighbor; she is not in any sense a citizen social worker. Just as a neighbor with a garden hose and good intentions is not a citizen firefighter. To say so is a heedless insult to trained social workers and firefighters.‘Old’ media’s excuses So much for new media.
But what about old media? When a newspaper executive claims that his industry is an essential bulwark of society and it stands threatened by a new technology as of yet unready to shoulder the same responsibility, you may be inclined to empathize.But when that same newspaper executive then goes on to claim that the industry bears no blame, that it has merely been undone by new technologies, feel free to kick out his teeth.
At that point, he is as fraudulent as the most self-aggrandized blogger.I took a buyout in 1995. That’s 14 years ago, well before the Internet ever began to seriously threaten any aspect of the industry. That’s well before Craigslist and department store consolidation gutted the ad base, well before any of the current economic conditions applied.In fact, when newspaper chains began cutting personnel and content, their industry was one of the most profitable ever discovered by Wall Street money.
We know now—because bankruptcy has opened the books—that the Baltimore Sun eliminated its afternoon edition and trimmed nearly 100 editors and reporters while the paper was achieving 37 percent profits. In the years before the Internet deluge, men and women who might have made the Sun a vehicle for news and commentary strong enough to charge for its product online were ushered out the door so Wall Street could command short-term profits.Such short-sighted arrogance rivals that of Detroit in the 1970s, when automakers—confident that American consumers were mere captives—offered up Chevy Vegas, Pacers and Gremlins without the slightest worry that mediocrity would be challenged by better-made cars from Germany or Japan.
In short, my industry butchered itself and did so at the behest of Wall Street and the same unfettered, free-market logic that has proved so disastrous for so many American industries.Cash before qualityAnd the original sin of American newspapering lies, indeed, in going to Wall Street in the first place.When locally based, family-owned newspapers consolidated into publicly owned newspaper chains, a trust between journalism and the communities it served was betrayed.
Economically, the disconnect is now obvious. What do newspaper executives in Los Angeles or Chicago care whether readers in Baltimore have a better newspaper, especially when you can make more putting out a mediocre paper than a worthy one?The profit margin was all. And so, where family ownership might have been content with 10 or 15 percent profit, the chains demanded double that and more. And so, the cutting began—long before the threat of new technology was ever sensed.But editorially?
The newspaper chains brought an ugly disconnect to the newsroom and, by extension, to the community as well.A few years after the A.S. Abell Family sold the Baltimore Sun to the Times-Mirror newspaper chain, fresh editors arrived from out of town. They didn’t look upon Baltimore as essential terrain to be covered with consistency and explained in all its complexity year in and year out for readers who live their lives in Baltimore.
Why would they? They arrived from somewhere else, and if they could win a prize or two, they would be moving on to bigger and better opportunities within the chain.So, well before the arrival of the Internet, veteran reporters and homegrown editors took buyouts, newsbeats were dropped, and less and less of Baltimore and central Maryland were covered with rigor or complexity.In Baltimore, a city in which half the adult black males are without consistent work, the poverty and social services beat was abandoned.
In a town where the unions were imploding, the working class eviscerated and the bankruptcy of a huge steel manufacturer meant thousands were losing medical benefits and pensions, there was no longer a labor reporter. And though it is one of the most violent cities in America, the Baltimore courthouse went uncovered for more than a year and the declining quality of criminal casework in the state’s attorney’s office went largely ignored.Meanwhile, the editors used their manpower to pursue a handful of special projects—Pulitzer-sniffing.
The self-gratification of my profession does not come from covering a city and covering it well, from explaining an increasingly complex and interconnected world to citizens or from holding basic institutions accountable on a daily basis. It comes from someone handing you a plaque and taking your picture.The prizes meant little, of course, to actual readers. What might have mattered to them was comprehensive coverage of their region and its issues, with real insight, sophistication and consistency.Where 500 men and women once covered central Maryland, there are now 140. And the money required to make a great newspaper—including the R&D funding that might have anticipated and planned for the Internet revolution—went back to Wall Street, CEO salaries and big-money investors.
The editors took their prizes and got promoted; they’re probably on what passes for a journalism lecture circuit these days, offering heroic tales of past glory and jeremiads about the world they, in fact, helped to bring about.Financing future mediaIt might be too late for American newspapering. So much talent has been torn from newsrooms over the last two decades and the ambitions of the craft are now so crude, small-time and stunted it’s hard to imagine a turnaround.
Business Get Organized!
But if there is to be a renewal of the industry a few things are certain and obvious: The industry has to find a way to charge for online content. Yes, I have heard a rallying cry that information wants to be free. But information isn’t. It costs money to send reporters to London, Fallujah and Capitol Hill, and to send photographers with them, and to keep them there day after day.Second, Wall Street and free-market logic, after decades of gutting journalism, are not now suddenly the answer.
Raw, unencumbered capitalism is never the answer when a public trust or mission is at issue.If the last quarter century has taught us anything, it’s that free-market capitalism, absent social imperatives and responsible regulatory oversight can produce durable goods and services, glorious profits and little of lasting social value. Airlines, manufacturing, banking, real estate—is there a sector of the American economy where laissez-faire theories have not burned the poor and the consumer, while bloating the rich and mortgaging the very future of the industry itself?Similarly, there can be no serious consideration of public funding for newspapers. High-end journalism can and should bite any hand that tries to feed it, and it should bite a government hand most viciously.
Moreover, it is the right of every American to despise his local newspaper—for being too liberal or too conservative, for covering X and not covering Y, for spelling your name wrong when you do something notable and spelling it correctly when you are seen as dishonorable.And it is the birthright of every healthy newspaper to hold itself indifferent to such constant disdain and be nonetheless read by all. Because in the end, despite all flaws, there is no better model for a comprehensive and independent review of society than a modern newspaper.As love-hate relationships go, this is a pretty intricate one. An exchange of public money would pull both sides from their comfort zone and prove unacceptable to all.
Business Get Organized!
But a nonprofit model intrigues, especially if that model allows for locally-based ownership and control of news organizations. The government should pursue making a nonprofit status for newspapers and creating financial or tax-based incentives to facilitate the transfer of ailing newspaper chains to local nonprofits.Lastly, Congress should consider relaxing certain antitrust prohibitions with regard to the newspaper industry, so the Washington Post, the New York Times and other newspapers can sit down and openly discuss protecting their copyright from aggregators and plan an industry-wide transition to a paid, online subscriber base.
Whatever money comes will prove essential to hiring back some of the talent, commitment and institutional memory that has been squandered.Absent this basic and belated acknowledgment that content has value and content is what ultimately matters, I don’t think anything else can save professional journalism.
This article was adapted from testimony before the Senate subcommittee on communications, technology and the Internet on May 6, 2009.
Business Get Organized!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I love to Write
I write about anything and everything under the sun. Writing is my passion. I know there are many people out there who absolutely love to write. Just thought I'd post a little blog about the fact that I love to write. That when reading my blog posts you will read about things I've researched on everything from glycerin soap benefits, to website computer skills, to health issues and maybe I'll just be ranting about my opinions on other people's opinions. It depends on my mood, the position of the sun, the time of day, what I've eaten....etc.etc.etc.....
Blogs are great for that, aren't they?
If you like to read, if you like some of the weird ways I write....then you just might like to pop in occasionally and read my blog!
Blogs are great for that, aren't they?
If you like to read, if you like some of the weird ways I write....then you just might like to pop in occasionally and read my blog!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Web Content for Search Engine Optimization
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200907/1246995173.html
Check out the link above regarding web content for search engine optimization.
Check out the link above regarding web content for search engine optimization.
How to Redirect a Website
http://www.ehow.com/how_5159734_redirect-website.html
Check out the link above to learn some helpful tips on how to redirect your website!
Interested in creating a mirror image of your hard drive? Check out this link for more information on how to do that! : http://www.ehow.com/how_5029078_create-hard-drive-image.html
Looking to get your business organized? Use the services of a Houston, Texas Filing Solution: www.scrollandquillservices.com for all of your filing service needs.
Check out many different types of articles written by Alicia Crowder: http://hubpages.com/profile/Alicia+Crowder
Check out the link above to learn some helpful tips on how to redirect your website!
Interested in creating a mirror image of your hard drive? Check out this link for more information on how to do that! : http://www.ehow.com/how_5029078_create-hard-drive-image.html
Looking to get your business organized? Use the services of a Houston, Texas Filing Solution: www.scrollandquillservices.com for all of your filing service needs.
Check out many different types of articles written by Alicia Crowder: http://hubpages.com/profile/Alicia+Crowder
Monday, July 6, 2009
Houston, Texas Filing Services
Houston, Texas filing services are available through Scroll and Quill services: http://scrollandquillservices.com/
For over 20 years, Scroll and Quill Services has been providing Houston, Texas area businesses with the most efficient filing services
For over 20 years, Scroll and Quill Services has been providing Houston, Texas area businesses with the most efficient filing services
Houston Filing Service
Commercial businesses around the Houston, Texas area can turn to Scroll and Quill Services for all of their filing needs. Check out the link: http://scrollandquillservices.com/
Creating Flyers for a Funeral Home
Learn about creating flyers for a funeral home: http://www.ehow.com/how_5155673_create-advertising-fliers-funeral-home.html
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