Pew Research Center: Many Americans wouldn't care if local paper folded

Egads.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1147/newspapers-struggle-public-not-concerned

 

Take it away and ask them again. I think newspapers, to many, are a you-won't-miss-it-until-it's-gone staple. Of course, we keep shrinking them, cutting news hole, cutting staff, etc., we're making it easy for them to feel that way.

 

Fuck them. Every time the crossword puzzle moves over a column, they bombard the place with phone calls. But they can take or leave the entire operation? Whatever.

 

Today's Research 2000 poll for Daily Kos showed that 76 percent of respondents did not know who Bernard Madoff is. The American people work HARD at being ignorant of the world around them. So of course many of them wouldn't miss newspapers. They might not miss members of their immediate families if they were to disappear one morning, too.

 

The Pew survey also discovered that many Americans are idiots.

 

No doubt people think a long time before giving their responses.

Probably if they were asked about Wall Street types, they'd say something like, "Stone them!" I probably would, too, if I were responding without thinking very much. But ... ummm ... I believe the country would notice their absence, in a negative way, if all those cocksuckers disappeared at once. Their abuses aside, they do provide an essential function. We can't NOT have Wall Street.

Stupid poll. Meaningless, really.

 

True dat

 

See Nov. 2000 and Nov. 2004.

 

And Nov. 1992 and Nov. 1996. Hey, gotta keep it even-handed. (Of course, in Michigan you could go and Nov. 2002 and Nov. 2006)

Back on topic: When these same people wonder why their stuff isn't being covered, like little Johnny's Little League game or the City Commission meeting, that's when you'd like to think they'll go "oh wait"...

 

This is the correct answer.
Also newspaper reporters are now the scourge of society thanks to publishers who allow anonymous comments after stories in which reporters are bashed and libeled on a daily basis. But publishers think it's healthy to let anonymous assholes criticize their reporters and stories. This business is dead. Bye bye.

 

Guess people would rather call the city to find out when the trash gets picked up. Or not read how their tax dollars are being spent. Or not read a solid gamer, a few sidebars and a follow on the local college football team.

Oh, wait. Guess not.

 

They'll just do without.
The Rivals.com websites and ESPN.com's will never cover the local teams like newspapers did.
But they'll get used to it. They'll listen more and more talk radio and read the internet message boards to satisfy their fix.