"Page One"

A documentary on the struggle of the New York Times to survive in the age of Twitter and Facebook is playing at the Civic Theater on 19th Street in Allentown.  I saw it yesterday.

The most telling moment in the film for me came when a young snot from “Gawker,” an online news service, said no one needs the Times anymore.  At that point David Carr, a media reporter from the Times, held up a copy of the Gawker site.  Then he held up the same copy with the material from daily newspapers cut out.  Swiss cheese has fewer holes.

One of the executives from an online website noted that his site gives the people what they want to read.  The site does a top ten article list.  I couldn’t read the complete list, but one that stuck out was “Helen Mirren to appear topless.”  I can guarantee you that gem won’t show up on the front page of the New York Times.

I thought it was telling that when the main newspaper in Baltimore filed for bankruptcy, one of the commentators noted that no reporters were left to cover the Zoning Hearing Board.  Twitter may be wonderful, but it can’t cover the war in Afghanistan in 140 character feeds.  We need newspapers.

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that probably between 1/4 and 1/3 of the posts are based on articles I read in the New York Times.  If the New York Times and the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle go under, I believe democracy as we know it will cease. 

Full disclosure:  I own some stock in the New York Times.  When I told the broker from Merrill Lynch that I wanted to buy stock in the paper, he did everything he could to discourage me.  I finally told him that I was buying stock for ideological reasons.  He had a real hard time grasping the concept.

Tomorrow:  Up to five million voters will disenfranchised by Republican voter laws.  (If you want a preview, see page one of today’s New York Times.)