Moronic Media

As a former 'ink-stained wretch' -- that's what newspapermen were called in the early days of television news -- I take little joy in noting a recent report from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (which is the outfit that provides advertisers with information on how many people are getting particular newspapers).

During the six months between October 2009 and March 2010, circulation of the nation's major daily papers continued to plummet.

My major hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, was down 22.7% weekdays and 19.3% Sundays from the same six-month period a year earlier. The Chronicle ranks 24th among the nation's daily newspapers.

Results for some of the other large newspapers for, and as compared to the same periods were:

No.5:  Washington Post -- down 13.1% weekdays and 8.2% Sundays.

No. 4:  Los Angeles Times -- down 14.7% weekdays and 7.6% Sundays.

No. 3:  New York Times -- down 8.5% weekdays and 5.2% Sundays.

No. 2:  USA Today -- down 13.6% weekdays (no Sunday edition).

No. 1:  Wall Street Journal -- UP 0.5% weekdays (no Sunday edition), the only one of the country's 25 largest papers to show an increase.

Nationally, circulation was down 8.7% on weekdays and 6.5% on Sundays.

From a financial standpoint the situation is even bleaker than the above numbers indicate. The remaining readership is older. Younger people -- the potential consumers/customers advertisers are most interested in reaching -- are less likely to be buying newspapers. Furthermore, most of the papers are retaining and even increasing circulation on the fringes of their metropolitan centers, outside their shopping core areas, and, therefore, the loss of readership is concentrated in the area from which advertisers can expect to draw customers.

The geniuses running the papers blame the loss of their audience on factors such as price increases and competition from free online content. It never seems to occur to them that their transformation from media striving to fairly and objectively disseminate information about the world to propaganda outlets with partisan and/or ideological agendas might have anything to do with their plight. For example, large numbers of people participate in or are sympathetic toward the Tea Party movement that is routine disparaged by the media -- and this includes the major broadcast networks that are experiencing a similar downward spiral. Do the publishers and broadcasters really think the people they routinely attack and the relatives, friends, and neighbors of these people are going to flock to buy their product. Duh ! ! ! !  Other examples include the routinely expressed media disdain for Arizona's legally enacted effort to alleviate the mayhem inflicted on its citizens on a daily basis by hordes of illegal immigrants and the charges of racism hurled by the same media at that effort's supporters, who make up an overwhelming majority of the nation's population (and potential newspaper consumers). Double Duhhh ! ! ! !

During my newspapering days we endeavored to provide our readers with fair, honest, and objective information that would enable them to understand their world. To the extent that we has a secondary mission, it was as one observer put it, "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Today's media functions as a giant megaphone for the ruling class, trying to sell to the afflicted their betters' world view and instructions on how it is proper for the afflicted to think, act, and live.