More major newspaper woes - gonna be harder to know what we can trust

I have heard the argument many times and I bet you have too....
that newspapers are the supposedly best source for news and info because they are objective, fair, unbiased, and ethical! yeah -- rrrrright.....this is so easy to prove WRONG.

Then the same people who blindly follow and support everything written in newspapers as gospel, tell everyone else that every other source on the internet is unreputable and biased. Message boards and blogs are especially worthless, they say, because it's not required to be balanced, fair, or accurate -- it's just hype, opinion, and propaganda. but let's actually look at facts - read on...

Well - regardless of this age-old claim - I still have plenty of points to counter with ..

First - aren't people allowed to be smart and think for themselves and make the decision on their own? Why do we need others who claim to be unbiased tell the masses what they should read and believe - that's kinda how it is in Communist China and I don't want that here.
Let people just read and decide fot themselves! To heck with this claim that we need to reign in or regulate what people say on the internet....after all then the same rules need to apply to newspapers and yet those folks claim a Constitutional Amendment to protect them from any "regulation".

Second - most newspapers are really hurting and going bankrupt - this is hard to deny and they're getting way more desperate and making major changes that affect their accuracy.
And there's a whole lot more on that topic below...
So if they are going under and desperate for more money - then it is obvious and it is even being reported that they are making major changes in order to get more advertising revenue and make more money in other ways.

Along that line they are kissing up to advertisers, influential people, and the public in general so they can position themselves to make more money...and guess what -- they're changing to become more like blogs and message boards and posting way more info electronically...info that in THEIR CASE - is apparently way more likely to be erroneous and inaccurate as I have readily shown many times recently!
In fact some recent stuff in the "standard" press makes bloggers look like fact-checkers.

Just check the most recent entry in this blog and note how badly the local newspaper in Peoria mis-reported the information regarding Ka'Darryl Bell's injured wrist.
In Peoria it was reported as an injury to his non-shooting wrist - but everywhere else in the universe it was plainly being reported as his right wrist - his SHOOTING wrist - a fact which makes the story incredibly more important and different.
So why so wrong?? Wrong... like reports that John Wilkins signed with Iowa State and more recently a full story on a local high school basketball tourney that totally misreported who won the tourney and took home the trophy!!

So - it's obvious that their money woes force them to lessen their standards (what standards they had) so as to cater to more sources of income, and save money.

But back to the main point --- as newspapers, especially the print versions, lose more and more money - you have to ask TWO MAIN QUESTIONS??

-How CANey lose this much money regularly and repeatedly?? -- we're talking BILLIONS of dollars!!! Where's it going??? How many people does it take to write a few stories that they mostly just recopy off the AP newswire??
Maybe the biggest story they could cover is where's all the money going - after all they're laying off gobs and gobs of people and outsourcing all their work!! (see below)

Any other business that loses BILLIONS of DOLLARS gets writeups in the paper and someone questions where's the $$ going and could there be something more ominous to explain such huge losses that rob shareholders of their savings and employees of their pensions?? Maybe this does deserve further inquiry?? Wouldn't you think so?

-Then if they are this monetarily bankrupt then clearly that would affect their accuracy, reliability, and their motives!! They simply wouldn't have the resources nor help to get things right...and they kiss up to advertisers!

If they are that cash strapped then just perhaps money becomes a bit more of an influential factor in how they run things. Maybe the $$ end of it runs all their decisions!! Money has a way of changing things and changing people.

Even their own reports on their own economic failures state clearly that they are making CHANGES, they are reorganizing, going different directions, changing journalism, and they are trying things and doing things differently in order to appeal to advertisers and make more money! They're trying whatever sells - simple as that!

Whoa...you mean they are selling out more??? That's exactly what they're admitting - they're cowtowing more and more to those who might advertise so they can get more ad revenue.
How ethical is that???

At least bloggers and message boarders have no biases like that -- they aren't saying what they're saying to get more money. Greed and money-seeking has to be one of the single MOST powerful influences that would alter the content of the newspapers...but NOT bloggers and other internet sources. Just maybe the internet sources ARE the new journalism....the best source for the truth and the watchdogs of society.

And it fits with what I have witnessed...many hot stories that are RELEVANT to Peoria get reported elsewhere but in Peoria they are not even mentioned because they make the biggest local advertisers look bad!
Here are just two examples of MAJOR stories that somehow got missed by the local Peoria newspaper - and coincidentally these stories are NOT good news for one of the PJS's top advertisers!!

http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/2011/08/reuters-reports-on-financial-troubles.html

http://zimtribune.com/?p=6783

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/520530


And here's more on why newspapers are likely getting more desperate and sacrificing accuracy and truth for profit and ad revenue....

Just the past week....

-The Pantagraph's parent company is filing bankruptcy - more than $1.3 BILLION in debt!!!!!
http://centralillinoisproud.com/fulltext?nxd_id=216797

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-14/post-dispatch-owner-lee-wins-approval-of-bankruptcy-loan.html


Add to that, this Bloomington local radio station, WJBC-1230 - the FLAGSHIP station for ISU Redbird basketball also just filed for bankruptcy!! ($0.211 BILLION in debt)
http://www.pantagraph.com/business/local/article_1a83614a-256f-11df-82d0-001cc4c03286.html

Whoa - what's going down in Bloomington? - soon there'll be no place left to find out anything -- just maybe the unpaid bloggers and folks who run message boards will be picking up the slack? At least they aren't so totally consumed with money issues and making a profit!!

BTW -- the Pantagraph's parent company, Lee Enterprises, also publishes the St. Louis Post Dispatch!


One other major media mogul, Gatehouse Media - also just announced "changes to it organizational structure"... ..in hopes of avoiding the same fate!
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gatehouse-media-unveils-new-organizational-structure-135253663.html

One local effect may be this...
that the PJ Star and Springfield newspapers are "outsourcing" more and more jobs...
before long all the reporting of Peoria news will be done by people in maybe Hong Kong?...
http://capitolfax.com/2011/12/01/report-sj-r-may-sell-its-building-as-parent-faces-a-billion-dollar-debt-payment/

Geez...just how freaking accurate can news and info in Peoria be if the reporting of some of this stuff is outsourced?? Do you even believe what you are hearing or seeing any more??

Here's more on Gatehouse...
"GateHouse stock, which sold for more than $20 a share during the initial public offering five years ago, is virtually worthless, selling for as little as four cents a share last week. The company has more than $1 billion in debt due in 2014."
http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-9382-has-lincolnrss-train-left-the-station.html

So this isn't just the business of the newspaper people - it's cheating the commoner and average folks by stealing the value of their stock holdings!

So... Gatehouse is also going down the tubes, their stock is worthless, and they are billions in debt?? How did it get this way?? Their own greed has driven them to where they are -- they are profit making companies and their lust for profits have been obviously quite a bad influence on their ability to appeal to a public that just wants a fair and honest press!

I'd go so far as to say this...
of all the motives that might drive someone to be dishonest or unethical -- I'd count greed and money-lusting at the top! Obviously cash-strapped companies that are changing the way they do things to appeal to more advertising revenue cannot be trusted to be fair and accurate! They are obviously biased and some crooked - and likely way, way more biased than the very people that newspaper-defenders always attack - the bloggers and message boarders.

So just who, then, appears more reputable??
Is it the guy whose words are heavily influenced by profit, greed, and trying to appeal to advertisers and sources of revenue...

OR is it the guy who willingly - for NO profit motive nor any other unethical motive whatsoever - states what he knows to be the truth...? ...then leaves the rest for th reader to judge....
I think you'll have an easy time answering this question.