J’s Notes

So far 2010 hasn’t been as awesome for me as I’d hoped it would. Ah well.

Comments seem to be broken. my apologies. I hope to have time to fix them this weekend.

One of my New Year resolutions is to pay more attention to this site and give it the love it deserves. I typically suck at resolutions…

OK, so that’s not really how it goes. But it’s Wednesday. And Wednesday night is the night that we usually ask questions.

If you’re feeling saucy enough, ask me questions and I’ll answer them. Maybe you want my opinion on something. Or maybe you’re wondering my philosophical feelings on pie. I dunno, toss me a bone and let’s see what happens.

Criegh Deeds, in his own words, in today’s Washington Post:

The day after I’m elected, I will begin assembling a bipartisan commission to craft a comprehensive transportation package. Like Gov. Baliles did, I will appoint Republicans, Democrats and independents along with private-sector leaders and transportation experts. The commission would begin work in December and issue its report early next year.

Emphasis mine. But just to make sure you didn’t miss it:

THE DAY AFTER I’M ELECTED

THAT is when Creigh Deeds intends on begining to come up with any sort of solution for transportation.  That is when he’ll start telling Virginians his plans for the roads they drive on (or sit on for hours on end) every day.  Not before, no, not when you and I are supposed to consider Deeds and Republican Bob McDonnell’s positions so we can make an informed decision on who to vote for Governor.

And who will he stock his bipartisan committee with?  Maybe the tax raising Republicans who have endorsed him?  You know, the same bipartisan individuals who brought up Mark Warner’s tax increase?

A bipartisan tax increase is good for Deeds and Democrats. Gives them political cover from any hounding they’d face for raising taxes during a down economy.

On the issues that matter to Virginians Deeds fails.

Transportation he has no plan.

Jobs? He’d raid the general fund that is so vital for education (in his words) to maybe help create some. Probably union jobs, but we don’t know because he can’t take a stand on card check.

Unions? Love em! And their money! Even though only 4% of Virginians are members of a union.

Is he for collective bargaining or against it for police officers? Depends on which police organization he’s talking to.

And this is all from a guy who can’t even appear on the same stage with his opponent!  A guy who can’t articulate basic answers to basic questions about whether or not he’ll raise taxes without snapping on a reporter simply trying to do her job.

From a campaign that touts “Deeds not words” they really aren’t delivering much of either.

Today’s Richmond Times Dispatch front page screams about how that evil devil music is leading kids to kill people left and right. Or, rather, how one kid may have been influenced by violent rap lyrics to murder four individuals:

Police: Lyrics may have played role in Farmville slayings

Investigators are trying to determine whether a suspect’s fascination with violent rap lyrics fueled the killings of four people found dead Friday in a Longwood University professor’s home.

Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III (which is a pretty hoity name, if you ask me) was arrested at Richmond International Airport in connection with the killings. McCroskey was a big fan and singer/rapper or Horrorcore, which is different from regular rap in that it’s about doing awful things like killing people. Wait…

Anyways, the gem in the article is this:

One song attributed to McCroskey on one of his MySpace pages discusses committing murder in a rage, trying to get rid of the remains and driving a stolen vehicle.

So here’s what the RTD wants you to think.

McCroskey’s fascination with music, rap music in particular, horrorcore rap music specifically, may have led this guy to kill four people. Just look at the lyrics.

THAT HE WROTE!

Anyone else see a problem with that “logic”?

It’s like saying bad literature may have led Charles Manson to be crazy. JUST LOOK AT HIS OWN ATTEMPTS AT LITERATURE!

It’s an attempt at sensationalizing the story in a matter that appeals to base emotions.

Books lead to violence.

Movies lead to violence.

Video games lead to violence.

Music leads to sex, drugs, and more violence. It’s like a hat trick for the Devil!

OR.

Really messed up crazy kid’s violent writings showed a mind that could comprehend doing horrific acts.

Now, this is certainly a slipperly slope because it’s hard to say the lyrics showed a troubled youth who needed an intervention. I’m sure there are plenty of perfectly sane folks who are into horrorcore rap, so saying the lyrics are a sign of madness and anyone involved needs help is a bit of a leap.

Over the next few days and weeks I’m sure we’ll find out more about McCrosky and a lot more red flags will pop up aside from his facination with writing violent lyrics.

But, really, Richmond Times Dispatch? Really?

No wonder no one buys your rag.

UPDATE: Ryan Nobles at NBC12 discusses the chicken and the egg argument with VCU’s Robin Diehl.

Following Rep. Joe Wilson’s “you lie!” outburst and the Democratic response, this really has to be said:

How can Democrats say health care reform is a “moral imperative” yet deny coverage to millions of human beings (illegal immigrants) merely based on whether or not they pay into the government system?

The two don’t mesh.

Today Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds took part in a live interview through the Times Dispatch where he took questions from the public. Yours truely happened to have his question asked first. Look, ma,  I’m on virtual TV!

For those that don’t want to watch the video, my question was this:

During the VBA debate at the Homestead both candidates pledged to not make social issues a focus during this campaign. Yet, only a few weeks later your campaign has decided to run strongly on the issue of abortion. Why the change of heart and will your campaign continue to focus on social issues instead of issues like jobs, transportation, education and others?

Deeds response is more or less this:

This campaign is not about social issues… this is an important issue because it shows the difference in priorities.

So it’s not about social issues, but it’s about this social issue in regards to priorities.

Priorities?

Creigh Deeds has said in regards to his campaign that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. And he’s absolutely right. Nothing on transportation. Nothing on taxes. Nothing on education. Nothing on jobs. Nothing on the issues that matter.

But abortion? Well, we’ve seen a lot of talk out of his camp on that. Not that it’s an issue in this campaign or anything. Just that it’s an important issue that he would really really really like to highlight.

Thanks to Ryan Nobles at NBC12 for the video and a good write up.

Lynn Mitchell puts it best when she quotes an old carpentry saying:

“Measure twice … cut once.” In other words, be certain before putting saw to wood because there’s no turning back.

Yesterday, Ben Tribbett of Not Larry Sabato measured once and then cut clean through his thumb, posting a picture of a Confederate flag near a Sportsmen for McDonnell booth and shouting from the hilltops that clearly, despite the rigged angle of the shot, that flag was smack dab in the middle of the McDonnell booth, displaying for all that McDonnell’s campaign is as wrapped up in southern heritage as Senator Jim Webb and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds.

Lowell Feld of Blue Virginia felt equally aghast and jumped on the bandwagon as well, going so far as to compare it to George Allen’s appearance in Gods and Generals.

Problem is, it ain’t Bob’s flag:

Hugh Crittenden, the founder and manager of the Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show, is backing up McDonnell.

Crittenden said he invited both campaigns to staff a booth at the show, which draws 20,000 people each year. McDonnell’s campaign decided to show, but came late, so Crittenden assigned them the only booth left open: Number 43.

It happened to be next another vendor who also signed up late, Down Home T-Shirts, which got Number 44. According to material submitted to the show, Down Home T-Shirts sells “Confederate T-shirts and more.”

He said even if McDonnell’s staffers had asked for a move, the show was so crowded that they could not have been accommodated.

“I don’t want Bob McDonnell to get a bad rap from my show. He was there trying to be there for the outdoors people and the hunters,” Crittenden said.

Not good enough for Ben Tribbett, who, according to the Washington Post, feels the McDonnell campaign should have marched right up, ripped that flag down an thrown it into the racist face that dared to display it.

Or move to another location.  Which Crittenden says would not have been possible.

So what’s a campaign to do?

Well, in the case of the Deeds campaign, they allow their entire new media playbook to be blown wide freakin’ open.

Shortly after Ben Tribbett’s post goes live, Deeds campaign manager Joe Abbey chews it up and then spreads his cud to the Twitterverse:

“BREAKING NEWS: MCDONNELL HAS CONFEDERATE FLAG POSTED IN HIS BOOTH AT GUN SHOW IN RICHMOND”

Suddenly this becomes big news. But not because of the flag. No, because, well, not only is the flag flap fake (alliteration can be fun!) but the Deeds campaign just got their hands dirty, ruining their message machine, at least, according to Lowell:

The story about the Confederate flag that ran on NLS (and also here at Blue Virginia) should have stayed on the blogs. In other words, the Deeds campaign shouldn’t have touched it with a 10-foot pole.

…

First of all, the Deeds campaign touches the Confederate flag story, a mistake on so many levels it’s hard to even know where to begin (distracts from the campaign’s real messaging, is a controversial subject that is much better off being handled by “surrogates,” etc). Then, in the Washington Post no less, we’ve got the campaign’s senior communications guy clarifying and contradicting the campaign manager. Not good at all.

The second part of this Dear Abbey letter is very true, and plays right into the hands of those defending McDonnell because, well, what the heck are you guys doing in the Deeds camp?  Focusing on the issues or kinda sticking stuff up on the corkboard and letting each person throw a dart to figure out what they’re going to do today? Where are your priorities?

The first part is a gem.  Lowell is saying, “Hey, Deeds camp, keep feeding us the dirt and the mud and the things we do best (you know, NOT fact checking) and we’ll do all the nasty work while you guys can just go ‘oh, we don’t care about that, we’re just focusing on the issues, lah dee dah…’ *wink*wink*”.

Thanks for sharing, Lowell.

So here we have a campaign for governor trying to gain traction with its base by ignoring the issues that matter like jobs, transportation, education and instead focusing on abortion and feeding the bloggers who call their rural efforts a “Deliverance Tour” a horrible picture in an attempt to associate the McDonnell campaign with the south.

Oh, and Deeds is down by double digits in every poll but one that only has him down by nine.  Oh, and that abortion issue is one that those polled trust McDonnell on 12% more than deeds.

And we have two of the biggest Democratic bloggers in the state running crazy with a picture.  Just a picture. And it’s not a picture of someone doing something inappropriate or even picking their nose. No, it’s a flag near a candidate’s booth at a gun show.

Ben Tribbett ran Bob “Cooter” Jones’s campaign against Eric Cantor.  The other drafted Jim Webb, for whom the Confederacy “simply reflects Southern pride“, to run against Haris Miller.  Southern heritage wasn’t much of an issue then.

And THIS is supposed to excite Deeds’s base?

This is turning into one LONG August for the Deeds camp.

Today is the eighth birthday of J’s Notes. Yep, for eight straight years (on and off), J’s Notes has been a source of the nonsense I care about at the given moment. Maybe the anniversary will get me off my butt to update this thing more often. Maybe.

Better late than never.

Jim Riley’s got two questions.  First:

If you were going to go on a spur of the moment trip to Argentina, what would you do there?

Hike naked in the mountains.

Then:

What do you think of the new rock supergroup “Chickenfoot”?

I actually had never heard of them before you mentioned them but checking out their MySpace it’s… well, interesting. I’ll have to give them more of a listen to really form a full opinion.

Bradley Robb brings the pain:

Any truth to the rumor that you own the entire Britney Spears discography?

Not a bit of truth at all. Nope. Not one bit. Ahem…

And on the subject of pie, do you recall the episode of Clarissa Explains It All when she went on that game show with her brother and he gave the definition to pie, when the host was really looking for the definition to pi? After all these years, do you still think that he got robbed?

I missed that episode, but that does sound like robbery to me. I mean, if they’re not going to clearly define which pie/pi then it should be based on importance and pie is much more important than pi.

Krystal’s getting the itch to make some changes at CCC:

I have been contemplating giving the blog a face lift and a makeover. Do you have any good suggestions for new themes, etc.?

I’ll have to dig some up. That’d make a pretty good post, so give me some time and I’ll churn something up for ya and everyone else sharing some of my favorite WordPress themes.  Cause there are plenty out there that are pretty darn sweet.

Thanks!

Any time.

Steven Latimer finally moves up in the world:

Jay, I finally got around to upgrading to Internet Explorer 8. Is this supposed to increase my self-worth?

Kinda. In a Microsoft world, sure. But if you really wanna feel good about yourself and be super sexy you need to upgrade to Firefox.

And John Doe came at me machine gun style with some real meaty questions:

I’ll give you a quiz:

Awesome. Let’s do this.

1. Did you vote for Obama or McCain?

Yes.

2. Who would you have preferred for President if it wasn’t Obama or McCain?

Me.

3. Your stance on SSM?

No thanks.

4. Raise taxes due to decreased revenue or decrease spending?

Buy a cabin in the woods, operate out of there.

5. Constitution: “Original intent” or “living, breathing document”?

Roll 2 D20 against to check.

6. More pro-prosecution/pro-defendant? (Yeah, I KNOW that is vague. And your point is?)

Why does it have to be either?

7. Civil litigation: More pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant? (Ditto.)

See answer to #6.

8. More pro-union or pro-business? (OK, that question could take hours to answer.)

See answer to #6, though you also forget factor three: pro-worker. And factor four: pro-me.

9. Your favorite American President ever.

Me. See answer to #2.

10. Paper or plastic?

Paper is dying and plastic tastes weird.

11. Jessica Biel or Jessica Alba?

See, that’s a tough one. While I respect the fiscal policies of Biel I’m a little hesitant on her social stances, especially in light of a recent Supreme Court decision on the nature of Blingo and its impact on whaling in the James River. Alba, on the other hand, has no fiscal policy and certain parts of her anatomy seem to have their own gravitational pull. That said, were the two able to breed with one another, they’d probably have an ugly baby because that’s just the way it goes.

12. Ginger or Mary Ann?

See answer to #11, only replace Biel with Mary Ann, whaling with Jell-O and Blingo with Mark Sanford.

Don’t worry about pidgeon-holing yourself, I’ll do it for you…

Appreciate that. Will there be beer?

It’s Wednesday!

If you’re feeling saucy enough, ask me questions and I’ll answer them. Maybe you want my opinion on something. Or maybe you’re wondering my philosophical feelings on pie. I dunno, toss me a bone and let’s see what happens.

Tank Man of Tiananmen

James Fallows at The Atlantic:

I am guessing that you will see no real-time TV reports from the Tiananmen Square area today, and little or no photography. This is based on personal experience there last night, China time, which also leads to personal advice for anyone in Beijing thinking of going there today.

During my time in Beijing over the past year and a half, I’ve often seen the square itself totally closed off to visitors, as it is at the moment. There are always plenty of security forces around — soldiers in green uniforms, various kinds of police in blue uniforms, and “plainclothes” forces who are pretty easy to pick out, like strapping young men in buzz cuts all wearing similar-looking “leisure” clothes. But I have not seen before anything like the situation at the moment.

Yesterday, Wu’er Kaixi, a former student leader during the Tiananmen Square Protests, tried to turn himself in to Chinese authorities after twenty years in exile.  He was detailed by immigration officials at the airport in China’s Macao territory.

The history of China as a nation is hard to nail down.  As dynasties changed through the years, each new emperor brought a rewriting of the nation’s history to best fit their familiy or their own legacy.  And the people went along or didn’t know better, being largely rural.

As a steeply traditional nation, even while under Communism China has found its historical roots hard to leave behind.  Some argue that Confucianism and its hierarchical system ingrained in the Chinese people a mindset that Communism was able to adapt to and co-opt as Maoism - a distinctly different form of Communism than found in the Soviet Union or even Cuba.

History is malleable in Chinese tradition.  “Barbarian” Manchu became “Chinese” when they took control of the country - something that not only allowed them to rule but gave the Han justification to claim Manchuria as Chinese when the Qing Dynasty came to an end.  Tibet is part of China now, thus has always been part of China.  The Chinese Communist Party was able to not only embody Mao but also hold up Sun Yat-Sen, a Democratic reformer, as a hero.

Historically China has been able to change its past to define its present.

It allows China to recognize the 90th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement as a pivitol moment when Chinese stood up against foreign imperialsm in the wake of World War I.  But now they take actions to ensure it doesn’t lead to another incident like the one twenty years ago.  Part of those actions are to ignore Tiananmen.

It never happened.

China is able to forget Mao’s Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward and the millions who lost their lives either through outright slaughter or starvation.  They remove it from history books.  They don’t discuss it.  It never happened.

Tiananmen is the same.  Twenty years ago China was still emerging from under the shadow of Mao.  Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms were turning China from a Communist economy to a more Westernized one, but still with restrictions and certainly with none of the political reforms that a free market invites.  Some within the CCP wanted farther changes.  They were purged.

Deng Xiaoping himself had faced purging from the CCP twice.  Deng was a Long Marcher who had fought with Mao to help bring the CCP to power.  In the late 60s during Mao’s Cultural Revolution Deng was sent to work in a factory in the Jiangxi province but was brought back into power in 1974 at the urging of then Premier Zhou Enlai.  Zhou was a reformer, regularly running at odds to leaders within the CCP, including Mao himself.  When Zhou passed away in 1976, public displays of mourning were brutally put down in the Tiananmen Incident.  Deng would again be removed, put under house arrest. But with Mao’s death in 1976, Deng was able to solidify his backing within the CCP and rise once again within the party and China.

With Deng’s rise came economic reforms that pulled China out of the economic gutter and led to it becoming what it is today, an powerhouse on the world stage.  Deng’s reforms were able to tap into the nation’s natural resources in ways Mao had never been able to.  But with the loosening of economic restrictions came pushing from both sides.

Hardliners saw a weakening of the central authority of the CCP.  Reformists saw an opportunity for political change in Beijing.

Deng proposed Four Modernizations: Agriculture, Industry, Technology, Defense.  In 1978 Wei Jingsheng tacked The Fifth Modernization to a wall in Beijing calling for greater individual freedoms.  Democracy Wall lasted a year before the CCP felt individual expression had gone too far in criticizing the Party.

But not everyone within party leadership was cracking down on demonstrations and individual expression.  Hu Yaobang was another Long Marcher but also one who believed in Deng’s reforms.  He was made Party Chairman in 1981 but was forced to resign in 1987 after being considered too tolerant of student demonstrations by leaders within the CCP.  It would be his death on April 15, 1989 that would lead to Tiananmen.

Crowds gathered and the Party got nervous.  Deng Xiaopeng, thought to be sympathetic to the student protesters, had his hand forced and on May 4th the CCP cracked down on demonstrators.  The rest, as they say, is history.

But not in China.

The Chinese government viewed the Tiananmen Protest as anti-revolutionary and a threat to their power.  While some attempts have been made to rehabilitate Hu’s image, at no point has the Party ever entertained reevaluating what happened at Tiananmen.  Chinese youth are not taught what happened, it’s passed over in favor of lessons on economy and globalization.

Yet in this era of the Internet and access to information world wide in an instant, China is having a hard time rewriting its history as it used to.  Now it is not just a simple matter of burning all old histories in the Forbidden City and writing new ones.  Information is now in the hands of everyone, no matter how big the Great Firewall of China may get.

But does it matter?

Bao Tong worked for Zhou Ziyang, reform minded CCP General Secretary who was forced to resign in the wake of Tiananmen:

Mr. Bao believes that an official reassessment of Tiananmen is crucial for China’s long-term stability. “You have to say it clearly: It’s not a good system, it’s a bad system. It has to be stated that the people who were killed [on June 4] were good people, and they shouldn’t have been killed. . . . We must announce that Tiananmen was a criminal action. That soldiers, from now on and forever, cannot oppose the common people. This gun cannot be pointed at the people.” He holds his fingers up in the shape of a gun and takes aim at the coffee table.

So is there a potential for another student uprising? Mr. Bao doesn’t think so. Although today’s economic turmoil is much more painful for China than the inflation of 1988-89, he believes the threat to the government’s stability is much less.

He first cites China’s tight grip on political discourse today, compared to 1989: “At that time, people could say Mao Zedong was wrong. Today, they can’t say Deng Xiaoping was wrong.” Although Chinese citizens have more ways to communicate today — especially via the Internet — these technologies won’t necessarily lead to calls for change. “The spread of the Internet is a good thing, but it is also a bad thing. Because in the hands of the government, it becomes a tool for brainwashing.” He sees government meddling behind online flare-ups of antiforeign sentiment.

Mr. Bao thinks the real key to Beijing’s control over its citizenry, however, is economic leverage.

As long as the CCP provides for its people, or allows its people to provide for themselves, it is in good standing.  Deng’s policies were ten years old in 1989 and China was still just emerging economically. Now it is the second largest economy in the world.  Its people are arguably much better off now than they were twenty years ago, certainly compared to thirty years ago before Deng’s policies began.

The next protests China sees may not be political but economic.  And they may be in the countrysides more than in the cities.  Because it’s easy to be concerned about politics when you don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from.  Rural China may be disproportionately impacted by a global recession.  This is something the CCP can’t block by firewall or by rewriting their history books.

By hiding Tiananmen from the people the CCP can hope to avoid the tough questions behind the events that led to the massacre.  But they feel they can not afford to allow protest and criticism for fear of losing control over the country.

“Every four minutes there is a protest with more than 100 people.” Mr. Bao cites a report that estimates China sees 100,000 protests per year, up from 80,000 three years ago.

Bao calls these “Little Tiananmens”.  And they impress upon the people exatly what the government wants them to forget.

The only freedom they have is what the Chinese Communist Party allows them to have.

Tiananmen may have never happened in the eyes of the CCP.  But every day, every four minutes they have another one, somewhere else.  And the Chinese people see it, feel it, know it first hand.

The CCP is holding onto the idea that history can be written by those in power.  But the people are starting to write their own histories and, with that, they are clamoring to have a hand in their own futures.  And without reevaluation of Tiananmen and the policies and events that led to the massacre, the Chinese Communist Party may find itself written out of history.

The Economic Crisis and the US Online Job Market

Geoff Livingston over at The Buzz Bin makes a great analogy - Newspapers Are Like Department Stores:

For department stores, many chains found their death in a trojan horse — the mall. With the rise of the mall, department stores were asked to anchor these megaplexes. But inside the smaller stores were more nimble, better competitors who specialized in deeper lines of products. Electronics, women’s shoes, hardware, whatever it was, from big box to pretzels chains took shoppers away from many department stores.

Ironically, like the mall, the Internet was supposed to be the future of newspapers. But for some reason the 90s passed and the opportunity was never realized. Perhaps that crack known as print advertising was just too good to give up. Or maybe, change was really that hard.

And he’s right.  Department stores for decades was the jack of all trades families turned to for one-stop-shopping.  But then malls came along, inviting specialist stores who then competed within feet of one another for foot traffic and business.  Department stores couldn’t compete - sure J.C. Penney’s has a shoe department, but it’s no Foot Locker when it comes to selection, brands and sometimes price (well, maybe not price, but still).

Specialization and one-stop-shopping met at the mall.

For over ten years now that’s been happening with the news on the internet: newspapers have come to anchor media coverage online but other operations have set up that specialize and do some things better than those aiming to do all things.  Sure the New York Times has a sports section, but ESPN is just a dot-com away.

So it’s adapt or die.  But how to do that?

“Cover what you do best. Link to the rest. inkheart dvdrip download “

This changes the dynamic of editorial decisions. Instead of saying, “we should have that” (and replicating what is already out there) you say, “what do we do best?” That is, “what is our unique value?” It means that when you sit down to see a story that others have worked on, you should ask, “can we do it better?” If not, then link. And devote your time to what you can do better.

As I linked to in March (Newspapers: Adapt Or Die), Newsweek is already doing this

Newsweek is about to begin a major change in its identity, with a new design, a much smaller and, it hopes, more affluent readership, and some shifts in content. The venerable newsweekly’s ingrained role of obligatory coverage of the week’s big events will be abandoned once and for all, executives say.

“There’s a phrase in the culture, ‘we need to take note of,’ ‘we need to weigh in on,’ ” said Newsweek’s editor, Jon Meacham. “That’s going away. If we don’t have something original to say, we won’t. The drill of chasing the week’s news to add a couple of hard-fought new details is not sustainable.”

If you can’t make it your own, focus on what you can make your own and hat tip others for the rest of it.

For some that may not be enough.  Sarah Lacy has advice at TechCrunch that’s a bit more aggressive but sounds like a perfect business model for succeeding online and off:

There’s an obvious option for these magazines, and I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about it: Ruthlessly collapse the print and online staffs, run everything online as soon as they write it, except one or two cover-length, long-form glossy pieces. Those will anchor the print issue, rounded out by the best stories from online. Then cut the money spent on trying to court new subscribers, shifting the entire marketing budget to promote the Web or real-life conferences and branded events. You could even use reader comments to flesh the online pieces out more for the print edition, driving more engagement in both the print and online versions. Voila! One publication, not two pretending to be one. And guess what? One publication is a hell of a lot cheaper, even if it’s printed on dead trees.

Give them something online many times a day, save the meat for the print and utilize your audience for filler when the magazine/paper comes out.  Now a reader can participate and have a vested interest in the success and invest in the media accordingly.

Not only does this allow media to remain relevant but also supports newspapers and magazines doing what they can do better than most any other blogger out there: WRITE ACTUAL ARTICLES.  Real meat, investigative pieces that take up 5-10 pages and really involves some journalism the reporting that they are better trained, equipped and financed to do.  Get a handful of kids fresh outta college to do your online content for $25-30k a year a starting, pay a couple veterans the bigger bucks to deliver the meat, groom the kids to eventually be able to do the same, and suddenly you have yourself a working paper on the relatively cheap.

This isn’t the way newspapers have worked, nor is it how they’re adapting.  Instead they’re cutting the bigger bucks veterans, stocking up on prospects on the cheap, and leaving them with no one to learn the real ins and outs of journalism from.  At some point its unsustainable, the kids don’t know how to provide any real meat and the hemorrhaging of money continues without anyone with the know how to stick their thumb in the dike.

Papers are going to keep failing.  Even if some make the harsh adjustments, it may be too little too late.  Just as many department store chains are now long and gone, so will many papers.  Others will survive, linger on as a shell of their former selves, or maybe convert and become something different, something better.

1:00pm UPDATE:

David Simon, creator of The Wire, gets it wrong:

Simon told the Senate Commerce Committee today bloggers don’t go to city council meetings, or know what the hell is going on if they do — a clichéd, out of touch refrain common among newspapermen who can’t be bothered to do any reporting on the assertion. The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed from a Newark Star-Ledger columnist to this effect:

Don’t expect that Web site to hire somebody to sit through town-council meetings… a lot of bloggers will be found gasping for breath under piles of pure ennui. There is nothing more tedious than a public meeting.

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…

I found this argument odd, because as a newspaper reporter who spent a few years covering a town much like Baltimore — Oakland, California — I often found that bloggers were the only other writers in the room at certain city council committee meetings and at certain community events. They tended to be the sort of persistently-involved residents newspapermen often refer to as “gadflies” — deeply, obsessively concerned about issues large and infinitesimal in the communities where they lived.

The whole Gawker piece by Ryan Tate is good and has some fine examples of citizen journalism.