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OLD_NEWS

                                             January  14, 2010
                                             September 9, 2013

Q: What's the problem with the news industry?
A:

   (1) No one wants any.  Seriously.  Look at the top
   ten stories for any on-line newspaper.  Something
   like "The Oral Sex Diet" is guaranteed to be in the
   number one place.  (And "Israeli Forces Conduct
   Satanic Sacrifices With Palestianian Children"
   wouldn't even make the listing.)

   (2) Pack journalism.  The few people who want to
   see any news can be kept happy by "rip-and-read":
   they all pull the same stories off the same wire    Most people *want* to
   services, or do light-rewrites of things cribbed    see news like this,
   from the New York Times.                            they want to know what
                                                       everyone else is
       This explains the problem with                  talking about.
       google news: Know about some new,
       important bill that just went up
       in front of congress?

       Start doing google news searches on
       it.  You'll get nothing for weeks and
       then it'll suddenly explode into
       hundreds of stories, which means it's
       just been mentioned on the AP wire or
       in the New York Times.  What's the
       point of aggregating crap?


   (3) If you are one of the few that actually
   cares about what's going on, and you're
   willing to pay for it, who exactly are you
   supposed to pay?  The New York Times?  They
   just don't deserve it.  Judith Miller was           For every Paul
   only the most obvious problem.                      Krugman, there's
                                                       a pair of
                                                       Tommy-Bobos.
         TIMED_OUT


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