Real Fear for the Future

Sorry to start the day on a negative note (negative notes?), but I'm not thinking the future is that cozy a place for us Americans from this vantage point. Besides the idiot, Republican Party dotard in the White House and his emotional, irrational outbursts and actions, there are facts and statistics stacking up that don't bode well for us all.

First, let's take our information we're getting. Newspapers are famously or infamously dying.

Number of Americans Who Read Print Newspapers Continues Decline

New York Daily News Fires Half Of Its Staff

Entire New Orleans Times-Picayune staff laid off

A Major Newspaper Fires Its Entire Staff

It's predicted this is the shape of things to come, too.

NY Times Editor Predicts Most Local US Papers Will Fold

Understand, too, this is not merely longing for a bygone day. This is no way nostalgia for the past and for "the way things were", no, not at all. 

This is about most or all of us having a basis of information. This is about all of us being engaged in the social fabric, as it were. This is about all of us have a similar basis of information from which we address our communities, our metropolitan areas, our cities, counties, states, regions and even the nation at large but the world, too. We will no longer have that basis from which to start, a more common background of knowledge.

So instead of reading the daily newspaper we would all or mostly all share, now we get things off the internet, if we read at all. This is where I say we also only read things that back up what we already "know", think we know and/or believe. It pits us more and more against one another because we so sincerely believe only that which we already want to believe.

It does not bode well for us.

And then there's the fact that no one will be down there at that newspaper to keep the local City Hall, Mayor, Council and city and state government accountable. With them not there to research, write and publish what's going on, who's going to? The local blogger on the internet?  Highly unlikely. God help us.

Then there's the issue of our news media has become far too "us vs them." We have Right Wing TV like Fox, publicly declaring itself entertainment but masquerading as news and skewing things heavily for one political party and for the already-wealthy and corporations.

Why is Fox News so biased toward the Republicans

This splits and splinters us all further, all the more. It's downright frightening.

Next up is the fact that, along with all this splintering, we're all joining fewer and fewer organizations.

Americans Are Becoming Less Social

We're becoming islands, unto ourselves. We belong to fewer churches (which actually I view as an improvement but that's another issue), we join less sports teams, bowling leagues and all kinds of social groups.

 After all this, now we also have whole countries, whole nations and other groups of people, going online to splinter us further. They whip people up with all kinds of false information and/or emotionalism in order to tear us apart from within. It certainly worked in the last national election for the presidency.

Add to all this that we're spending our way into obscene, huge, unnecessary defense spending that actually weakens the nation.

America's Defense Budget Is Bigger Than You Think

With that spending and our giveaways to the already-wealthy and corporations, we're also spending ourselves into crazy debt and deficit spending.

Trump Proposes Record Spending, Trillion-Dollar Deficit

With that, I'll stop. God knows that's enough. And that's just what's going on in our nation. I could go on with the UK's Brexit and China's response to our, again, dotard President and a lot more.

I just don't see much good out there. We have to put our faith in the American people waking up. Waking up and voting the wrong people, in office now, out of those offices.

I hope it doesn't require reading a newspaper to get us there.

Star Wins Big Award

Yes sir and ma'am, our own Kansas City Star won a terrific award this week for its report on Kansas government keeping information away from its own citizens.

The Star earns national Pulliam 

First Amendment Award

The award is for this series:

Kansas is ‘one of the most secretive, 

darkest states’

Fantastic.

With this thought, it's the perfect time to say the Star needs to do more hard-hitting articles like these. This is what newspapers are for. This is why we need newspapers generally and the Star, here, locally. If the Star doesn't do it, no one else will. Certainly not some local blogger.

We need them to do more hard-hitting articles like these on state and local governments in the area and on both sides of the state line. This and do more articles on local people in the metropolitan area. Both types of these articles will gain far better readership for them, too. 

Total wins for all of us.

I Have a Bad Feeling About This

I have a bad feeling about this.

I was downtown last week at the Kansas City Star building and saw all these tiles. There were lots of them. Apparently they are going to put them all over the West side of the Star's building, on an outdoor entrance area.

The idea is fine and all, if maybe a kind of waste of advertising dollars. The people are just going in the building. It doesn't mean they'll buy a subscription to the paper because they see these.

But here's the thing.

I have this bad feeling that these tiles are going to outlast the paper.

I'd so love to be wrong.

The Big Reason Our Kansas City Star Will Likely Fail?

So, I've been thinking for a while I should maybe subscribe to the Kansas City Star to support local reporting, important as I think it is. If they don't have the reporters out there, covering local news, local government and keeping our representatives in check, who else is going to? Some local blogger, in his  mother's basement, practicing caustic "yellow journalism" at its worst, posting sexist, misogynistic photos of scantily clad women and using ALL CAPS HEADLINES, inciting his very racist readers and commenters?

I don't think so.

So I tried to get an unlimited online subscription.

Wow.

You would not believe how difficult they make it to do this.

I tried going online to subscribe but they don't offer, simply, an online subscription there. It's unlimited online plus the paper or nothing at all.

Already. Right there. Do you realize how crazy that is, in this day of people wanting their news online? They should offer the online subscription, right up front, period. People are wanting, possibly, to throw money at them but they don't give that option.  Insane. And that's just to start.

So I phone.

Oh, brother.

The first message there, on the phone, is that their "call volume is heavy and there may be a wait."

What the what??

Call volume may be heavy?

Are you freaking kidding me?

It's the Kansas City Star.  It's a newspaper.  Your subscriptions and list of readers has famously been falling FOR YEARS. People are DROPPING the paper, not picking it up. Everyone knows this. It's a nationwide, very well known phenomenon and it's local, as well. We all know this.

So they then give you a bunch of recorded options but all of them assume you are already a subscriber.

Get that.

They don't even put on an option to TAKE ON NEW SUBSCRIBERS.

All they can do is respond to you if you're already taking the paper. It's insane. No simple, "To become a new subscriber, press lucky 7" or anything like it. If you don't take the paper already, it doesn't recognize you, can't recognize you and so, you have to respond with something else, as though you are already subscribing, in hopes that someone will come on and help you actually GET AN ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION.

But here's the next problem. I did just that. Pushed the buttons, gave them the responses so I could actually get a person to speak to so I could subscribe.

I was put on hold.

Again.

It went on and on.

Frankly, I had to clean up to get to work.

Here's the deal.

You can't subscribe to the local paper, to the Kansas City Star. Or if you can, they certainly don't make it easy.

You would think they would have a link on their home page online to do so but no.

Then you would think they would have quick, easy prompts, to actually get to someone, on the phone, who could and would help you do just that, to get a subscription.

But they don't.

Honestly, at this point, I've no idea how to subscribe to the paper unless one has oodles of time in the middle of the day.

Good luck, Star.

I have no idea how you're going to survive. It's the 21st Century. Please join us.

And this from a guy who is convinced newspapers are important.

One More Huge Endorsement For Hillary

Last evening, another Democratic presidential candidate got yet another historic, even unprecedented  endorsement.

Foreign Policy breaks with tradition to endorse Hillary Clinton

For the first time in Foreign Policy’s nearly 50-year history, it has endorsed a candidate for president: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“In the nearly half century history of Foreign Policy, the editors of this publication have never endorsed a candidate for political office,” the editors wrote in its endorsement. “We cherish and fiercely protect this publication’s independence and its reputation for objectivity, and we deeply value our relationship with all of our readers, regardless of political orientation. It is for all these reasons that FP’s editors are now breaking with tradition to endorse Hillary Clinton for the next president of the United States.”

The editors of Foreign Policy called Clinton “one of the best qualified candidates this country has produced since World War II” who is “unquestionably well-prepared to lead this country.”

“Were she to be elected as this country’s first woman president, not only would it be historic and send an important signal about both inclusiveness and Americans’ commitment to electing candidates who have distinguished themselves on their merits, but she would enter office having already put down one great threat to the United States of America — the grotesque and deeply disturbing prospect of a Donald Trump presidency,” the editors wrote.

Meanwhile, in sharp contrast, is the Trump campaign, historic in its own, very opposite way.

Not a single newspaper has endorsed 

Donald Trump for President

Mr. Trump is going to take an electoral drubbing, folks.

Links:

Another conservative newspaper editorial page 

just endorsed Hillary

USA Today Makes Presidential Endorsement 

for First Time Ever

A newspaper that hasn't endorsed a Democrat for president in 7 decades shreds Trump as 'not qualified'

An Article Nearly Everyone At The Star Should Read

There's an excellent article---no surprise---in today's Sunday Edition of the New York Times that, as I said, virtually everyone down at our own Kansas City Star should read. It is:

A Year of Challenges in the News Business

It's mostly all about what their newspaper---and virtually every newspaper--should do given our changes to how people are reading and accessing news and what used to be newspapers now.

One of the most pointed paragraphs:

The biggest change is probably that so many of them read The Times now not just in digital form, but on a smartphone. That means that visual journalism — including video offerings — must become more central than ever. It also means that even more journalism must be presented with digital tools at the forefront, not as an afterthought.

And this:

“We have to keep asking ‘what’s the best way to tell this story?’ ” Mr. Baquet said. That means that the newsroom itself needs to change — substantially.

Here's hoping this is the direction The Star is headed.

It doesn't seem so but here's hoping. I certainly wish them well.

Today's Kansas City Star. And What's Wrong With It

I saw this morning's, today's Kansas City Star and just looking at the front page and then through it shows you, easily, quickly, precisely what's wrong with it.

If you have one, if you saw it, you know the biggest part of the entire page was one big picture. That's all.

Mind you, it was in color but that was it.

And that story?

It was a sports story.

Sports. On the front page.

You'd think that might be in---what?---the sports section? Maybe a small teaser about it on the front page and then the huge pic and story there?

Nah. It's the Kansas City Star.

Then, after that, what's up? What else is on the front page?

What caught my eye and what likely caught the average reader's eye was a rather large title to the left declaring "The Star gains a new leader."  (For a moment, I thought it read "reader." We all know they're pretty desperate).

What got me and gets me about this is that their big news for the city is----ta daa!----all about them.

I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, does anyone besides the people at the newspaper and the person's family and friends truly care or bother themselves with who, exactly, is the publisher, new or otherwise, at the local newspaper? I know I don't. Well, not unless he or she could somehow save it all.

From there, the front page has yet another color picture, this one on the standoff by the domestic terrorists in Oregon and it takes up about 1/4 of the page.  After that, is has a small teaser about North Korea's leader possibly setting off a nuclear warhead. Something trivial like that. You can open up the paper and check that out if you want.

So of all that, what DOESN'T the front page have?

It doesn't have any local stories on local topics that are important to Mr. and Mrs. Kansas City in the area. You know, you and me.

Nothing on City Hall. Nothing on Mayor James. Nothing on any of the city's larger issues and problems. Nothing.

Of course, that's what you get when you slash your budget and lay off so many of your local reporters and writers.

What's in most of the paper?

Articles on the nation and the world that come off reporting wires like the AP.  Things you can get anywhere. Things that people do, in fact, get anywhere. Like the television and their computers.

If you don't have local stories with local problems and possible solutions and local people and stories with local color, why have a newspaper? Indeed, why GET the paper?

And that is what is wrong with any and every newspaper in this nation, if it's struggling. It adds to their problems of people turning away from these things anyway.

People are, as I said, already turning away from newspapers. Why really chase them away because you don't cover local stories and local people? You have to have good writing on interesting, even important, compelling stories that matter to the residents or there's really no reason for you to exist.

I said it here before, as the Star transitions from newsprint to the computer, as all media is, it would behoove the organization to get people with cameras out in the city---still and moving video---for local stories and local events. It would give people reason to go to their sites.

But if the printed paper cannot and does not give local writing and reporting, it only hastens the decline of the paper, it increases the numbers of people not taking or buying it and it only brings on the demise of the paper that much faster.

It seems obvious, to date, where the Kansas City Star is headed.

I don't hope or wish for it but it surely seems certain. This star is setting. And pretty quickly. Sadly.

Side note: What's both ironic and really pretty awful is that the cheap, sleazy, "yellow journalism" exhibited daily, nearly hourly over at "Tony's Kansas City" blog probably does a better job of covering local stories, especially at City Hall, and across town, than the Star.  Even with his tabloid journalism techniques, his ALL CAPITAL LETTER headlines, his repeated use of the same, tired photos for story after story, his blatant sexism and his allowing deeply racist, really ugly, even hateful people to post comments on his site, it, tragically, probably reports more local news better than the Star.

If that isn't enough to make one almost nauseous about local media, nothing will.

The Time Has Come to Tax Trash in the US

Really, the time has long since come and gone that we need to tax trash.

Yes, tax trash.

Check out this one statistic:

In 2010, U.S. residents recycled 34% of their waste–an embarrassing amount compared to European countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, where people recycle almost all of their waste. In Sweden, people are so diligent about recycling that just 4% of all trash ends up in landfills...

We Americans figured, I think, we have all this space--quite unlike Europe--we don't have to care.

Well, we do have to care. The total municipal solid waste in 2012 alone was 251 million tons. (see link below). And that amount has surely risen greatly since then.

The time is now.

The more one throws away, the more you pay. It only makes sense. We need to do this.

In the first place, we throw away and waste far too much. We all know that. If we recycled only paper, aluminum and glass, alone, millions upon millions of pounds, if not tons, of products wouldn't go to waste dumps.

Second, surely we recognize we can no longer afford the soil, the Earth our waste dumps take up.

Third, there's the pollution it causes, the runoff into the soil and possibly into waterways. We have to recognize that--and that it must stop.

Then, there's the fact that it would be so very easy to do. And we could use the market economy to make this happen.

The smallest tax, employed to reduce this waste, would very likely have a huge,  positive effect.

And it's so simple. It's not like it wouldn't be understood.

The more your throw away, the more the hauler takes away, the more you pay. That's it. It makes far too much sense not to do this.

Can you imagine what we would save, what we would no longer waste, by doing this?

Think now about how much paper and plastic alone go into waste dumps just from corporate America--from the fast food industry alone.

We'd save the paper, we'd save the glass, we'd reuse the aluminum, all.

Then we'd be saving the land, saving our streams and saving forests.

No, this makes far, far too much sense.

We need to get on this.

Link:

 Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: Facts and Figures

Quote of the day--with your Sunday morning news

The New York Times, shining the way for our Star

There is a fascinating, and insightful article in The New York Times Sunday about the transition for and of that old, venerable paper into the news, information and entertainment source it will hopefully, into the future.

A Milestone Behind, a Mountain Ahead

Fortunately, The Times, to date, understands as so few newspaper groups do, that in order to be a vital relevant and important source for news, information, arts and entertainment for its readers and subscribers, you need excellent, experienced reporters and writers.

Fortunately, too, for more local newspapers (like the Star), is that they don't need to do the more national and international reporting The Times does.

What people in the newspaper industry need to know and develop is that the only way they can survive is by transforming what they are on paper to an online version and that will require being multi-media source and experience that covers their cities and metropolitan area and all the counties involved and even the region the paper serves.

By doing this, by transitioning to an online source and by including writing and photography and video and music, everything, a "newspaper" will be able to survive.

But the people doing these papers now, need to understand that.

If they don't, if they don't understand and do that and as soon as possible, they will, quite likely, die.

And until they do, until they realize this, the end of that newspaper will likely be far sooner than they think.

KC Star's site still doesn't work

Note to the Kansas City Star:

The internets are the thing of the future.

Really.

I went to the Star's site today, after having seen an article in the paper this morning about a billboard that was put up in town, saying that the Catholic Church's Bishop Finn should be dismissed.

I searched for it online, sure.

No article.

What I did get, instead, was an add for Kohl's department store that not only came up but, when "closed"--three times--would not go away, instead.

Clearly, the folks at the Star just don't get it.

Maybe one day they will.

If the Star makes it that long.

Could we now accept that AT&T technicians shouldn't be out alone at 3 am?

The good news, if this is good news, is that the apparent murderer of 58 year old AT&T employee Kevin Mashburn was arrested.

As you likely know, Mr. Mashburn is the AT&T employee who was out last week at 3 am, doing his job, when someone sneaked up on him, smashed him in the head and left him to die.

So sad. So tragic. So unnecessary.

It seems the accused--one Bryan Middlemas--phoned a former cellmate to tell him what he did that night and that person turned him in for the reward.

What seems true and that needs to be said is that AT&T and all companies should have policies wherein no one--no one--should be out in the city, working, in the middle of the night like this, alone. This happened in Gladstone. If it happened there, I think we can safely say it could easily happen in any part of the metropolitan area.

It reminds me so much of what our Dad told us as teenagers. That is, that "No one but murderers, rapists and thieves are out in the middle of the night."

A bit of an exaggeration but not by much.

Links: http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/crime/bryan-middlemas-charged-in-the-murder-of-att-worker

On the demise of the American newspaper

"We draw ever closer to the once-unthinkable day when some major American city has no newspaper whatsoever."

That quote is from a column by Leonard Pitts, Jr. of the Miami Herald newspaper this past Saturday. (Link, as usual, below).

When this happens--heaven forbid, though it seems as though it's going to happen--that a city or cities across America won't have newspapers, it will not just be a sad day for that city or those cities and even America, it will be a tragic day, a dangerous day for all of us.

When there aren't reporters to ferret out stories about our government representatives or our government overall, we will lose yet more power in our societies.

When those newspapers aren't there to pay those reporters to search out stories about our corporations and what business is doing in private, with or without those same government representatives and/or institutions, we will be a weak people, indeed.

There are other problems and losses, too, like the fact that newspapers could and frequently did give us both sides of an issue and the fact that we all had a common basis--that newspaper--from which to draw our common background, whether we accepted or believed it all or not.

So go ahead, make fun of your local newspaper or reporters or what have you. Tbey may not be great, they may not be perfect, they may not be what they once were but they gave us what information we would not otherwise have gotten.

It may have been some backroom deal. Some "sweetheart deal." Some illegal or even just unfair or unethical one.

But without that newspaper and without their payroll and without, again, those reporters, we know nothing.

Or we run that risk, surely and simply.

Link to original article: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/23/2863825/these-are-not-ordinary-times-for.html#morer

An ugly tidalwave, hopefully not headed here

But I--a lot of us, actually--fear otherwise.

Headlines from the news in the last 24 hours:

Times-Picayune cutting half of newsroom staff (New Orleans)

Advance cuts 400 employees statewide, more than 100 from Birmingham News

Not only is this not good for the newspaper staff, of course, but it's not good for these cities and it's absolutely not good for the citizens.

The shape of things to come, I fear.

Here's hoping people all over the world will continue to read what our government representatives, our government and the corporations and wealthy of the world are doing to us so we know what to do to fight for the working man and woman of the world.

This isn't headed in a good direction, that's for sure.

It's as writer/author/historian David McCollough said, "An Uninformed Citizenry Will Be Fatal to Democracy."

Links: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505244_162-57451699/times-picayune-cutting-half-of-newsroom-staff/


http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/87519--3-alabama-newspapers-cutting-about-400-jobs


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303936704576395730493447372.html

A thought for a great story for the Star

It occurred to me last evening.

A great story for The Star.

They should at least do a story on local talent, photographer Eric Bowers and his work.

So much of it is so sharp, crisp, unique and wonderful. (He has his detractors but let's not quibble. That's a style issue).

This shot of downtown, above, for instance. It's just one of his latest pieces.

It would be great the paper, great for Eric and great for people who, if not on Facebook, have no idea, maybe, that he's out there doing great stuff.

Here's another of his latest work:


Clearly, he does stunning, creative, wonderful work.

Here's an extension of that thought for The Star:

Go beyond this one person and his blog. Cover other bloggers in the area--there are lots--and see what they do and why and maybe even where. There should be some great stories out there. Great, local stories. There are more photographers and attorneys and restaurant critics, etc. (And for the sarcastic out there, no, hell no, I absolutely don't mean me. Don't even start).

Yes, there may be the problem that it gets people away from newspapers, if that's the way they think down there (at The Star) but for the most part, the people who don't know of these people already, wouldn't and won't know of them otherwise. It's a natural link for the paper and its faithful readers.

Link: http://www.ericbowersphoto.com/

Notes to both the Star, Tony and other bloggers, local and otherwise

Great blog entry well worth reading for those with an attention span: Traditional Media Reporters Fail to Understand the Purpose of Blogging Read it here: http://crooksandliars.com/murshedz/meta-traditional-media-reporters-fail-und

On the US, "heroes" and our non-functioning systems

From yesterday's New York Times Sunday Review section: "As the national narrative shifts from the war on terror to the specter of decline, the uniform performs another psychic function. The military is can-do, the one institution — certainly the one public institution — that still appears to work. The schools, the highways, the post office; Amtrak, FEMA, NASA and the T.S.A. — not to mention the banks, the newspapers, the health care system, and above all, Congress: nothing seems to function anymore, except the armed forces. They’re like our national football team — and undisputed champs, to boot — the one remaining sign of American greatness." --William Deresiewicz, essayist, critic and author of "Solitude and Leadership", an address delivered at West Point in 2009 and widely taught in the armed forces. Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/opinion/sunday/americas-sentimental-regard-for-the-military.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=our+sentimental+regard+for+soldiers&st=nyt

In case you're in one of these industries

From The Wall Street Journal:

Top 10 Dying Industries

Sector	Revenue 2010 (in millions)	Decline 2000-2010	Forecast Decline 2010-2016	Establish- ments 2010	Decline 2000-2010	Forecast Decline 2010-2016
Wired Telecommunications Carriers	$154,096	-54.9%	-37.1%	23,474	-10.5%	-15.9%
Mills	$54,645	-50.2%	-10.0%	9,553	-23.6%	-12.8%
Newspaper Publishing	$40,726	-35.9%	-18.8%	6,128	-28.6%	-17.6%
Apparel Manufacturing	$12,800	-77.1%	-8.5%	2,265	-60.5%	-11.3%
DVD, Game & Video Rental	$7,839	-35.7%	-19.3%	17,369	-34.8%	-11.2%
Manufactured Home Dealers	$4,538	-73.7%	-62.0%	3,968	-56.7%	-58.7%
Video Postproduction Services	$4,276	-24.9%	-10.7%	1,789	-43.2%	-37.8%
Record Stores	$1,804	-76.3%	-39.7%	2,916	-77.4%	-11.6%
Photofinishing	$1,603	-69.1%	-39.1%	7,083	-59.3%	-33.3%
Formal Wear & Costume Rental	$736	-35.0%	-14.6%	2,310	-28.5%	-17.0%

  
If you're still in one of these, you should probably bail.


Just sayin'.


Link to original story:  http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/03/28/top-10-dying-industries/: 

Another local link in The New York Times Sunday

I love looking in The NY Times on Sunday for, well, anything and everything, really, because you just never know what you'll find.  It's like life on a hallucinogenic, that paper.  It's great.  Mind-blowing, even.  What a fantastic way to end and start a week.

And I love checking out the "Vows" section each week, even, because, unlike all the rest of the parochial, condemning newspapers across the country, the Times can and does show marriages, however few, between same-sex couples.

So there one was this week and it had a local connection, too:

Jack O’Kelley III, John Haskins

Jack O’Kelley III and John Alan Haskins were married Saturday evening at Meridian House in Washington. Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit officiated.

Mr. O’Kelley (left), 43, is a partner in New York for Heidrick & Struggles, an executive recruiting and consulting firm. He advises boards and companies on succession planning for chief executives. He graduated summa cum laude from Hampton University and received a law degree from Yale.

He is the son of the late Maxine H. O’Kelley and the late Mr. O’Kelley Jr., who lived in Burlington, N.C. His mother was an assistant superintendent of the Burlington City school system. She was a member of the board of governors of the University of North Carolina System and a founding director of MidCarolina Bank in Burlington. His father was the chairman of the Alamance County Commission and also a member of the board of governors of the University of North Carolina System.

Mr. Haskins, 48, is an associate managing editor of The International Herald Tribune in Paris, which is published by The New York Times. He graduated from the University of Missouri.

He is the son of Joyce Lee Johannsen of Manchester, Mo., and the late John Lee Haskins, who lived in Des Moines. His mother retired as a public affairs specialist for the Army Reserve Personnel Center in St. Louis. His father owned Gold Coast, a tavern in Des Moines.

My real reason for posting this--besides the fact that he's a local boy--is to point out that, if Mr. Haskins stayed in the area, he wouldn't have this option, unless he drove up to Iowa, got married and came back.

And even then, the Star couldn't and wouldn't show it in the Sunday paper.

Here's hoping for an open-minded, accepting and equal future for us all one day.

And the sooner, the better.

Link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/fashion/weddings/08OKELLEY.html?ref=weddings

A problem of The Star's they make themselves

One of The Kansas City Star's biggest problems was blatantly obvious today.  I got a copy to read over lunch.

Another mistake, on my part.

The front page of the paper?

Four-fifths of it was on Osama bin Laden.  The last one-fifth was on local issues.

The 2nd section of the paper? 

In their own words:  "Killing Osama bin Laden:  A special 8-page section on the hunt, the death and the consequences"

Page A2?  The 2nd page in the paper?  One-half on national news and one-half advertising.

A3?  Same here.

Page A4 finally is a page of local news.  Finally.

A5?  A full-page ad.

It goes on like that.

The Sports section is the Sports section, they get what they want and need.

The "entertainment" section?  "FYI"?  There's a huge picture and story on the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and then Aaron Barnhart covers the White House Correspondent's Dinner.

My points?

The end result is that Kansas City Star is not a local paper.

The one thing they should do BETTER THAN ANYONE, ANYWHERE, is to cover local stories, local people and local color.

If they don't do that, who will?  The local TV news stations?

We all know that's at least rare.  (See one good exception below).

So on page C4 in the Business section of the paper today is an article--yes, it's finally local--telling of this same Star newspaper laying off yet more staff.

Granted, the newspaper business is dying, sure.

And they've laid off a great deal of reporters, before this latest layoff.

But y'all sure aren't doing yourselves any favor down there at the Star's offices copying and pasting national stories and then expecting us to buy the rag.

The photographer, Eric Bowers, pointed this out on his Facebook page recently:

I reiterate how useless local news stations can be. There was a large demonstration on the Plaza by the Syrian and Arab American community about some slaughtering going on in Syria by the tyrants there and the news stations didn't even send a truck - they're too busy talking about dumb crap like cats stuck in trees in the suburbs to do any actual spreading of world information based on how it relates locally.


And who's covering a scandal up in Parkville right now?  Reporter Russ Ptacek on NBC "Action News".

It sure wasn't The Star.

Link:  http://www.kansascity.com/
http://blog.ericbowersphoto.com/2011/05/protest-in-kansas-city-against-syrias-bashar-al-assad/
https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hpskip#!/video/video.php?v=10150579645520582&comments