Oh, the tears flowed when the family traded in the old hag for a Model-T. I wept when the last pay phone was ripped out. I'm crying tears of joy that far left radical, America hating propagandist shills and lap dogs for the Democrat party have to go find real jobs now.
Gutenberg got death threats from the scribes union when he invented the printing press. Entire generations of families made their living chopping ice from their pond, covering it in saw dust, and shipping it south. Oh, the humanity!
But horses and pay phones didn’t fail as a class; whereas the newspapers and media as a whole are voluntarily circling the bowl. The new sources of news exist b/c the old sources unilaterally ceded the field.
Breaking out my tiny violin. This is what happens when out of touch Ivy League student newspaper writers take over the newsroom. All they care about is the current thing narrative, not real news. Who will fill the gap for critical local news?
The Statement on major layoffs at the Los Angeles Times from Black, Latino, AAPI and MENASA Caucuses is worth ridiculing:
The announcement today of cuts at the Los Angeles Times eliminating 115 jobs has devastating implications for Black, Latino, AAPI and other journalists of color.
If these layoffs are allowed to go through, our caucuses will be decimated. The Latino Caucus will lose 38% of its members. The Black Caucus will lose 36% of its members. The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) caucuses will lose 34% of their combined membership.
Our newspaper’s ownership made a promise to bring in talented journalists from diverse backgrounds so that our staff reflects the city we cover, in the most populous state in the country. These proposed cuts would severely damage what incremental progress has been made.
De Los, a Latino-led, Latino-centered, initiative, will be gutted by these cuts. That is just one example of the ways in which this proposal would deal a disastrous blow to the efforts to build a newsroom in Los Angeles, where half of all residents are Latino. The cuts would also leave fewer than 20 Black staffers in the Guild, making it all but impossible to reach the company’s promised goal of 44 Black staffers by 2025. The newsroom’s sole reporting positions dedicated to covering Southern California’s diverse Black and Asian communities will be eliminated.
We want to reiterate that the company pledged their commitment to diversifying the newsroom and coverage for the benefit of The Los Angeles Times and the communities it serves. You can find those promises here and here. That commitment has been broken.
Hilarious that they cared enough to figure out the exact percentage of employees fired while not realizing that the word they used to describe those firings denoted a specific, different percentage. But then I guess attention to detail and clear communication isn’t really something a journalist should be worried about.
Seems like those numbers are equally split, you'd think the caucuses would appreciate the idea that even the layoffs were inclusive enough to accommodate quotas.
This probably is the direct result of any study of classical history. Of course, as a DEI follower, why would you study such things. These guys were just dead white dudes. Hardly anything important.
It's part of the corruption of the English language. In the same way, people now routinely say "I could care less" when they actually mean "I COULDN'T care less".
These people do not understand what journalism is, or its purpose, or its role in our Republic. Or the difference between journalism and propaganda. They deserve to be laid off. I cancelled the LA Times after they started insisting that everyone use the ridiculously offensive non-word "Latinx." And I was particularly ticked off that they eliminated the TV schedule, on of the few useful pieces of information that still appeared in the publication.
I said that about Murdochs papers (the horoscope thing) about 30 years ago and it got back to him and he’s been weird with me ever since. He’s a famous hater. He even has lists.
I routinely call people on the term "Latinx". The Spanish language is gendered. So to Latinos, using the made-up, English term "Latinx" is just the latest form of Anglos trying to erase Meso-American culture. I've get groveling responses from uber-educated, progressive college grads (which means 80% of all college grads) every time I accuse them of colonialism. It's really funny.
All of their complaining is all about groups and caucuses and "communities", entities that exist virtually if at all. Not one thought about what really exists, the common human being.
So, are “they” wanting a government bailout? Or, maybe a law that states “all residents within California, who are not undocumented aliens, of color, members of the LGBTQPIF+ community, felons, and/or registered democrats MUST maintain a yearly subscription to the LATimes at all cost, without exception. Each of these subscribers must read, memorize, and hold all DEI, climate and Donald Trump information in said publication as truth, and nothing but the truth - even when said information is proven to be “misinformation.”
The LA Times has forsaken its journalistic responsibility to meet a DEI agenda. Of course, these idiots will want the rest of us to pay!
Yeah, yeah, I know. I am a racist. Equity before equality.
"Who, what, when, where, why, and how". I learned that in grade school. I quit the news a decade ago for the reasons you state, but every now and then I'll catch a tidbit. NO NEWS COVERS THOSE BASICS ANYMORE. They say nothing, answer none of those questions, and always leave more questions than answers. Totally pointless and I don't regret my decision to abstain. I get my news from Substack these days. I might be a day or two behind, but at least I know what I'm talking about.
This is every newspaper in America. My grandfather was the editor of the Lexington Leader here in Ky. He also led the Ky Republican Party for a time. His sons…my dad and uncles…were paper boys. We grew up around news and politics. Then corporations started gobbling up local papers and they stopped covering news or printing the truth about what they did cover. I used to publish letters and editorials in the paper all the time. Then 9/11 happened. Our paper refused to print anything other than the absurd official story. I told the editor a few months later that the paper would die a slow painful death because it refused to give people the truthful information they craved and they would switch to other sources as a result. This has proven true. Circulation has dropped every year while prices have gone up. The size of the paper has literally shrunk every few years. It used to be free online and now they charge for that, too. You are expected to pay for propaganda BS and by the time they cover any story of importance it’s already days old. They brought this on themselves by forgetting their purpose and blindly trusting the authorities instead of thinking for themselves. Our country is failing as a result.
Matt - good description of what has happened to all the local newspapers around the USA. Now no one is covering local politics, which was one of their responsibilities. Politicians love it when no reporters attend their ‘public’ meetings.
“As a fun test, I’d like to see how many people in the Los Angeles Times newsroom could get in the car and find South Pasadena without putting it into their phones for directions.”
Why don’t you take Broadway to the 101 but DONT get on the 101 and instead get on the 110, and take the 110 to Fair Oaks all the way back to where you came from, Chris! *cue The Californians music*
Shoot SoCal traffic broke me like a ridin' pony tied to a post, walking in circles for oats, at the county fair in less than a year after getting my license.
Looks to me like the LA Times is being pretty evenhanded in its layoff policy, because each of the Oppressed Groups is losing roughly the same percentage of writers, but I'm sure they'll discover racism somewhere.
My brother and I delivered the Bee from 6th-12th grades. Morning paper. Palms black as tar after adding inserts and folding 100-ish papers each morning. We'd put the paper bags on our bike handlebars, and throw most papers onto the porch from the sidewalk.
Like so many difficult things in life, there are parts of delivering papers that I sincerely miss. The feel of the perfect toss onto someone's porch (Mon, Tue, Sat papers--least amount of inserts, easiest to throw longer). Being awake and alive while the entire world was asleep. I've been an early riser since.
Reading the paper every morning before school.
I'm pretty sure that delivering newspapers in many ways influenced the degree I became a reader as a youngster. Freakonomics makes the argument that it is the number of books in a home that predict reading comprehension 10 years later, not pre-school. Need to reread...
Reading about the Prep of the Week (high school athlete of the week) on Thursdays was my favorite article of the week, but I read the paper nearly cover to cover.
In high school, we went to the library to find sources for our debates. Evidence--now this makes my head just spin--was anything in any periodical. We debated capital punishment, abortion, smoking and numerous other topics. Our 'facts' were articles from Time magazine, LA Times, or WSJ.
I completed accepted that what I read was true. We all accepted it was true. It was the proof of our arguments in debate for goodness sake.
I believed it all. FOR ALMOST ALL OF MY LIFE.
In fact, I was a bit arrogant about it. I read the 'early bird' (Dept of State's aggregation of news--this was way before DrudgeReport when the articles were photocopied) every day. I was an intelligence professional. I read Economist. I read. I read. I read.
Turns out 'yellow journalism' and 'Remember the Maine!' were not secluded to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
As sad as it is to lose something with nostalgic ties, killing a lie-making organization like the LA Times should actually be reason for celebration.
The times I've taken 30-90 day 'water only media fasts' have always coincided with lower BP, better sleep, better relationships with myself and others.
Screw 'em. We have substack now. Those pathetic journo's can go add vanilla to someone's latte. That is likely of much greater value anyway.
You bring back great memories. When I was 11-12 years old I delivered the Temple City Times and the San Gabriel Tribune the same way you describe: fold the stacks of newspapers, place them in the canvas bags, tie the bags to my bicycle handlebars, and ride around town at 6 in the morning. Yes, I developed a great appreciation for reading newspapers everyday, but that habit stopped when the journalism became so blatantly biased to the left. Yes, we have Substack now, and we’re richer for it.
My brother & I for years had a 70-paper route in west Pasadena for years. Rain or shine, papers were folded, inserts stuffed, rubber-bands applied, stuffed into into the handle-bar bags & off to ride up & down the local hills. #GoodOldDays now replaced by adults in cars...
We moved into our home, small gated community (starter homes bro...1500-2100 sq ft homes) with 40 homes. The kid who delivered the paper back then was some resilient little stud. He figured out how to get inside our gate, and always laid the paper flat on my door mat. I tipped him $25 a month. Stellar service.
About a year later, the paper begins to show up in my grass, only feet from the street, in a plastic bag. A dark, faceless, lifeless adult in a car took over the route. I stopped the paper about 8 years later--hardest was to give up the daily crossword puzzle...
I wrote a little article about the lost art of paper delivery back in 2003, wish I could find it. Only Boomers & GenXers would get it.
There is something about doing a job that NEVER has a single day off. If I were to relive any of my childhood days--it would have to include delivering newspapers. It was such a part of my life for so many years.
Kinda like OCS. I hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Then, once we graduated...I missed it! We are not the best at defining what we want.
A little more detail for the paper started in 1880 for goodness sake:
~
The Tonawanda News was a daily newspaper in North Tonawanda, New York, United States, covering part of Niagara County, as well as Tonawanda, the Town of Tonawanda and the Village of Kenmore in Erie County.
It was last owned by Greater Niagara Newspapers, a division of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.
The newspaper won numerous AP and New York Newspaper Publisher Association awards for its coverage of major stories, including the crash of Flight 3407 in Clarence, N.Y.[citation needed]
The newspaper shut down January 31, 2015, due to financial insolvency.[2]
Switching coasts and Timeses, but I think it’s the same wavelength:
This past Sunday, the NY Times ran a big page 1 article on how icky the conservatives behind anti-DEI initiatives are. (The whole thing was ad hominem, not about the issues.)
The by-line was Nicholas Confessore. At some point Confessore took up rent-free residence in my head because I realized this was a reporter who didn’t report; he writes almost no articles, though he appears frequently on MSNBC (or used to; he may still, but I don’t watch the channel anymore).
In recent years he’s had a very few co-authored pieces, but this is to the best of my knowledge his first solo by-line in *literally years*. And it’s not news; it’s political agenda stuff.
But in the supposedly lean, new-normal newspaper business, the NY Times somehow keeps him on staff and paid year after year, not writing.
By contrast, the NY Times permanently eliminated its metro pages during covid, and last I heard the entire New Jersey bureau now consists of one reporter in their own car.
(One way I rationalize their keeping Confessore on is I imagine them just invoicing his salary to Langley.)
I saw the change in the early 2000s, when I was an editorial writer at the Press-Enterprise in Riverside. The Times briefly made a play for Inland readers. But their stories were always trailing ours by four or five days. Sad really.
It would be hard to believe now how it used to be. But I know. I was there.
About local news-- I for one would pay good money for a subscription to a good local paper or blog covering my own county's politics -- and by "good" I mean, for example (it's a low bar here, folks) covering what my county's commissioners are actually doing and actually saying, and who's the sheriff and what's he doing or not doing, and various community opinions thereof (as in ye olde "letters to the editor"). I'd like to read the work of reporters who competently report, and of editors who competently edit, not these blinkered jokers who so strive to excel at regurgitating the performative pieties du Jour as transmitted from O Holiest Wokedom. As I say, I'd pay good money for good local political coverage, but so far, and for years now, it's not on offer in my neck of the woods. (Hello? Hello? Anybody out there?)
A couple of decades ago, I read an article bemoaning the fact that local newspapers were disappearing, and the worst result of that is there will be no reports to sit in on, and report on, public meetings of local politicians; thus they’re essentially operating in private.
From what I saw, the local newspaper coverage of local politics in my area was mostly fiction. I would go to the occasional council meeting and the reporting did not match my accounts at all. Even if the reporter submitted an honest account the editor would change it to curry favor with his political cronies. Most people found more value in volunteer reports on Facebook. Even then people felt the wrath of the petty tyrants and risked harassment from police, building inspectors, etc.
I try not to be too harsh toward the adult infants of the Internet age, as they are the most propagandized generation in human history and are the intellectual and spiritual equivalent of veal calves, having been hobbled at birth by massive infusions of Self-esteem bromides, which seem to have destroyed their immune systems and trained them to respond to any disagreement or disappointment with raging "the world is evil!" tantrums—but that being said...
The aspiring cultural and journalistic elites of our time decided that they would denounce their professions for various crimes of oppression ("the 19th-century founders of our college didn't center the marginalized!") and renounce things like skill, craft, neutrality, intelligent skepticism, and good faith etc in exchange for the thrilling frisson of MORAL CLARITY. All the cool kids had to have this a few years ago, you either had it or were a bigoted Nazi who deserved cancellation or worse, and it was decided that, as the proper moral and intellectual beliefs were already obvious and established, the point of all endeavors (from a TV show to its commercials to your local reporter or novelist) would be to constantly bang people on the head with them—BE BETTER, BIGOT!—at any and all occasions. Morality demanded it!
Ahh, but there's one thing infants are too young and small-brained to comprehend: decisions bring consequences and that crack rock you smoke today may have some negative effects somewhere down the road. And now the angry addled "journalists" of the LA Times will have to stew in their dirty diapers and hope another billionaire or their widow or daughter comes along to change them and give them a new bottle.
The kids at the LA Times decided that being Commissars of Moral Clarity was cooler and more edgy than just being a journalist—these don't "change the world" or bring about a Diverse future—and now will have to learn that not too many people are willing to pay for the same stale Soviet lecture they can get for free at the Daily Kos.
But, as this is California, I'm sure a local DEI department somewhere is still hiring...
Oh, the tears flowed when the family traded in the old hag for a Model-T. I wept when the last pay phone was ripped out. I'm crying tears of joy that far left radical, America hating propagandist shills and lap dogs for the Democrat party have to go find real jobs now.
Gutenberg got death threats from the scribes union when he invented the printing press. Entire generations of families made their living chopping ice from their pond, covering it in saw dust, and shipping it south. Oh, the humanity!
But horses and pay phones didn’t fail as a class; whereas the newspapers and media as a whole are voluntarily circling the bowl. The new sources of news exist b/c the old sources unilaterally ceded the field.
You misspelled “media as a whore.” You’re welcome 😎
Touché! 🤣
Great point, this time it’s truly self immolation!
I heard Wendy's is hiring.
Aren’t they supposed to learn to code?
But we should weep for their soon-to-be new coworkers.
Breaking out my tiny violin. This is what happens when out of touch Ivy League student newspaper writers take over the newsroom. All they care about is the current thing narrative, not real news. Who will fill the gap for critical local news?
The Statement on major layoffs at the Los Angeles Times from Black, Latino, AAPI and MENASA Caucuses is worth ridiculing:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ddVLPl09G5ZPBBZ-3DS8rdMhBpwXUscW0hVNDkMMWOA/edit#heading=h.wyqmibxu9bx3
The announcement today of cuts at the Los Angeles Times eliminating 115 jobs has devastating implications for Black, Latino, AAPI and other journalists of color.
If these layoffs are allowed to go through, our caucuses will be decimated. The Latino Caucus will lose 38% of its members. The Black Caucus will lose 36% of its members. The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) caucuses will lose 34% of their combined membership.
Our newspaper’s ownership made a promise to bring in talented journalists from diverse backgrounds so that our staff reflects the city we cover, in the most populous state in the country. These proposed cuts would severely damage what incremental progress has been made.
De Los, a Latino-led, Latino-centered, initiative, will be gutted by these cuts. That is just one example of the ways in which this proposal would deal a disastrous blow to the efforts to build a newsroom in Los Angeles, where half of all residents are Latino. The cuts would also leave fewer than 20 Black staffers in the Guild, making it all but impossible to reach the company’s promised goal of 44 Black staffers by 2025. The newsroom’s sole reporting positions dedicated to covering Southern California’s diverse Black and Asian communities will be eliminated.
We want to reiterate that the company pledged their commitment to diversifying the newsroom and coverage for the benefit of The Los Angeles Times and the communities it serves. You can find those promises here and here. That commitment has been broken.
Signed,
Latino, Black, AAPI and MENASA chairs and members
"If these layoffs are allowed to go through, our caucuses will be decimated."
"Decimated " means losing 10%, not 34-38%.
Hilarious that they cared enough to figure out the exact percentage of employees fired while not realizing that the word they used to describe those firings denoted a specific, different percentage. But then I guess attention to detail and clear communication isn’t really something a journalist should be worried about.
Seems like those numbers are equally split, you'd think the caucuses would appreciate the idea that even the layoffs were inclusive enough to accommodate quotas.
This probably is the direct result of any study of classical history. Of course, as a DEI follower, why would you study such things. These guys were just dead white dudes. Hardly anything important.
Triple decimated!
The meaning of decimated is to lose 10% everyday until you're all dead.
Seems more like you'd kinda just fade away, but never quite disappear.
👍 You’d think journos were literate, but... noooooo...
Be nice…. Decimated makes that one sound like it knows what the word means.
It's part of the corruption of the English language. In the same way, people now routinely say "I could care less" when they actually mean "I COULDN'T care less".
These people do not understand what journalism is, or its purpose, or its role in our Republic. Or the difference between journalism and propaganda. They deserve to be laid off. I cancelled the LA Times after they started insisting that everyone use the ridiculously offensive non-word "Latinx." And I was particularly ticked off that they eliminated the TV schedule, on of the few useful pieces of information that still appeared in the publication.
The most reliable thing in the newspapers of today are the horoscopes.
Perfect. And it appears that the rags in the line the grocery have more truth than the papers of record. News of the world.
I said that about Murdochs papers (the horoscope thing) about 30 years ago and it got back to him and he’s been weird with me ever since. He’s a famous hater. He even has lists.
Really need a laugh emoji for this, it is so true.
I think if they stopped publishing crossword puzzles they would lost 20% of their readership. Maybe more. That would end them.
well played!
bsn
I routinely call people on the term "Latinx". The Spanish language is gendered. So to Latinos, using the made-up, English term "Latinx" is just the latest form of Anglos trying to erase Meso-American culture. I've get groveling responses from uber-educated, progressive college grads (which means 80% of all college grads) every time I accuse them of colonialism. It's really funny.
All of their complaining is all about groups and caucuses and "communities", entities that exist virtually if at all. Not one thought about what really exists, the common human being.
So, are “they” wanting a government bailout? Or, maybe a law that states “all residents within California, who are not undocumented aliens, of color, members of the LGBTQPIF+ community, felons, and/or registered democrats MUST maintain a yearly subscription to the LATimes at all cost, without exception. Each of these subscribers must read, memorize, and hold all DEI, climate and Donald Trump information in said publication as truth, and nothing but the truth - even when said information is proven to be “misinformation.”
The LA Times has forsaken its journalistic responsibility to meet a DEI agenda. Of course, these idiots will want the rest of us to pay!
Yeah, yeah, I know. I am a racist. Equity before equality.
. . . "this proposal would deal a disastrous blow to the efforts to build a newsroom in Los Angeles, where half of all residents are Latino . . ."
Why is this written in English? Wouldn't half of all residents prefer it in their native language?
They still have their appropriate percentages. It’s just that their percentages are based on a total of zero.
I need to say lol. It needs to be said.
"Who, what, when, where, why, and how". I learned that in grade school. I quit the news a decade ago for the reasons you state, but every now and then I'll catch a tidbit. NO NEWS COVERS THOSE BASICS ANYMORE. They say nothing, answer none of those questions, and always leave more questions than answers. Totally pointless and I don't regret my decision to abstain. I get my news from Substack these days. I might be a day or two behind, but at least I know what I'm talking about.
Journalism is all Lenin's "who, whom" these days. What and how and especially why... irrelevant.
Irrelevant or directly counter to the agenda.
This is every newspaper in America. My grandfather was the editor of the Lexington Leader here in Ky. He also led the Ky Republican Party for a time. His sons…my dad and uncles…were paper boys. We grew up around news and politics. Then corporations started gobbling up local papers and they stopped covering news or printing the truth about what they did cover. I used to publish letters and editorials in the paper all the time. Then 9/11 happened. Our paper refused to print anything other than the absurd official story. I told the editor a few months later that the paper would die a slow painful death because it refused to give people the truthful information they craved and they would switch to other sources as a result. This has proven true. Circulation has dropped every year while prices have gone up. The size of the paper has literally shrunk every few years. It used to be free online and now they charge for that, too. You are expected to pay for propaganda BS and by the time they cover any story of importance it’s already days old. They brought this on themselves by forgetting their purpose and blindly trusting the authorities instead of thinking for themselves. Our country is failing as a result.
Matt - good description of what has happened to all the local newspapers around the USA. Now no one is covering local politics, which was one of their responsibilities. Politicians love it when no reporters attend their ‘public’ meetings.
Excellent summary of the LA Time's devolution. Thanks.
Useless rag. I love seeing Jean Guerrero being trolled on X.
“As a fun test, I’d like to see how many people in the Los Angeles Times newsroom could get in the car and find South Pasadena without putting it into their phones for directions.”
Why don’t you take Broadway to the 101 but DONT get on the 101 and instead get on the 110, and take the 110 to Fair Oaks all the way back to where you came from, Chris! *cue The Californians music*
take Fountain.
Shoot SoCal traffic broke me like a ridin' pony tied to a post, walking in circles for oats, at the county fair in less than a year after getting my license.
Looks to me like the LA Times is being pretty evenhanded in its layoff policy, because each of the Oppressed Groups is losing roughly the same percentage of writers, but I'm sure they'll discover racism somewhere.
“Racism” is when I don’t get what I want.
For free.
Ain't that the truth.
My brother and I delivered the Bee from 6th-12th grades. Morning paper. Palms black as tar after adding inserts and folding 100-ish papers each morning. We'd put the paper bags on our bike handlebars, and throw most papers onto the porch from the sidewalk.
Like so many difficult things in life, there are parts of delivering papers that I sincerely miss. The feel of the perfect toss onto someone's porch (Mon, Tue, Sat papers--least amount of inserts, easiest to throw longer). Being awake and alive while the entire world was asleep. I've been an early riser since.
Reading the paper every morning before school.
I'm pretty sure that delivering newspapers in many ways influenced the degree I became a reader as a youngster. Freakonomics makes the argument that it is the number of books in a home that predict reading comprehension 10 years later, not pre-school. Need to reread...
Reading about the Prep of the Week (high school athlete of the week) on Thursdays was my favorite article of the week, but I read the paper nearly cover to cover.
In high school, we went to the library to find sources for our debates. Evidence--now this makes my head just spin--was anything in any periodical. We debated capital punishment, abortion, smoking and numerous other topics. Our 'facts' were articles from Time magazine, LA Times, or WSJ.
I completed accepted that what I read was true. We all accepted it was true. It was the proof of our arguments in debate for goodness sake.
I believed it all. FOR ALMOST ALL OF MY LIFE.
In fact, I was a bit arrogant about it. I read the 'early bird' (Dept of State's aggregation of news--this was way before DrudgeReport when the articles were photocopied) every day. I was an intelligence professional. I read Economist. I read. I read. I read.
Turns out 'yellow journalism' and 'Remember the Maine!' were not secluded to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
As sad as it is to lose something with nostalgic ties, killing a lie-making organization like the LA Times should actually be reason for celebration.
The times I've taken 30-90 day 'water only media fasts' have always coincided with lower BP, better sleep, better relationships with myself and others.
Screw 'em. We have substack now. Those pathetic journo's can go add vanilla to someone's latte. That is likely of much greater value anyway.
bsn
You bring back great memories. When I was 11-12 years old I delivered the Temple City Times and the San Gabriel Tribune the same way you describe: fold the stacks of newspapers, place them in the canvas bags, tie the bags to my bicycle handlebars, and ride around town at 6 in the morning. Yes, I developed a great appreciation for reading newspapers everyday, but that habit stopped when the journalism became so blatantly biased to the left. Yes, we have Substack now, and we’re richer for it.
Y’all are killing me! I was that paperboy, and then Vietnam happened. And I’ve been awake ever since.
My brother & I for years had a 70-paper route in west Pasadena for years. Rain or shine, papers were folded, inserts stuffed, rubber-bands applied, stuffed into into the handle-bar bags & off to ride up & down the local hills. #GoodOldDays now replaced by adults in cars...
We moved into our home, small gated community (starter homes bro...1500-2100 sq ft homes) with 40 homes. The kid who delivered the paper back then was some resilient little stud. He figured out how to get inside our gate, and always laid the paper flat on my door mat. I tipped him $25 a month. Stellar service.
About a year later, the paper begins to show up in my grass, only feet from the street, in a plastic bag. A dark, faceless, lifeless adult in a car took over the route. I stopped the paper about 8 years later--hardest was to give up the daily crossword puzzle...
I wrote a little article about the lost art of paper delivery back in 2003, wish I could find it. Only Boomers & GenXers would get it.
There is something about doing a job that NEVER has a single day off. If I were to relive any of my childhood days--it would have to include delivering newspapers. It was such a part of my life for so many years.
Kinda like OCS. I hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Then, once we graduated...I missed it! We are not the best at defining what we want.
bsn
You should have your own Substack, BSN!
I delivered the Tonawanda News in Buffalo, NY with my friend Cricket and his Mom would help out on snowy days but usually we delivered via bicycle!
Yep Rochester. By hand. Sundays were brutal. 110 papers each weighing at least a pound.
A little more detail for the paper started in 1880 for goodness sake:
~
The Tonawanda News was a daily newspaper in North Tonawanda, New York, United States, covering part of Niagara County, as well as Tonawanda, the Town of Tonawanda and the Village of Kenmore in Erie County.
It was last owned by Greater Niagara Newspapers, a division of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.
The newspaper won numerous AP and New York Newspaper Publisher Association awards for its coverage of major stories, including the crash of Flight 3407 in Clarence, N.Y.[citation needed]
The newspaper shut down January 31, 2015, due to financial insolvency.[2]
Oh so nailed it!
Since when does a newspaper have “caucuses?”
I agree…what the hell is that all about, anyway!?
Think about them as new chapters of the Klan after its soon-to-be “brand extension.”
Same idea as in shows such as "Survivor": debate and voting on who gets fired.
Switching coasts and Timeses, but I think it’s the same wavelength:
This past Sunday, the NY Times ran a big page 1 article on how icky the conservatives behind anti-DEI initiatives are. (The whole thing was ad hominem, not about the issues.)
The by-line was Nicholas Confessore. At some point Confessore took up rent-free residence in my head because I realized this was a reporter who didn’t report; he writes almost no articles, though he appears frequently on MSNBC (or used to; he may still, but I don’t watch the channel anymore).
In recent years he’s had a very few co-authored pieces, but this is to the best of my knowledge his first solo by-line in *literally years*. And it’s not news; it’s political agenda stuff.
But in the supposedly lean, new-normal newspaper business, the NY Times somehow keeps him on staff and paid year after year, not writing.
By contrast, the NY Times permanently eliminated its metro pages during covid, and last I heard the entire New Jersey bureau now consists of one reporter in their own car.
(One way I rationalize their keeping Confessore on is I imagine them just invoicing his salary to Langley.)
Your Langley comment is not far off the mark. Read “The Gray Lady Winked” to see just how corrupt the Times is and has been.
My friends and I are planning a massive party when the NYT finally closes shop.
I saw the change in the early 2000s, when I was an editorial writer at the Press-Enterprise in Riverside. The Times briefly made a play for Inland readers. But their stories were always trailing ours by four or five days. Sad really.
AND! When they picked up stories that other newspapers broke, THEY PRETENDED THAT THEY BROKE THEM.
Because in their world, they did break them. The news isn't real until the real journalists write about it.
C’mon…it takes a while for the scriveners in eye shades & printer’s sleeves to copy the text.
Scriveners. You’re dating yourself! Well met!
Main stream media, praise him or cuss him, something else DJT broke.
The breaking of MSM and their abject failure to question authority is why Trump became President.
It reminds me of the mini submarine that failed probably because they did not want to hire middle aged white guys with submarine experience.
Chris, thanks for this.
It would be hard to believe now how it used to be. But I know. I was there.
About local news-- I for one would pay good money for a subscription to a good local paper or blog covering my own county's politics -- and by "good" I mean, for example (it's a low bar here, folks) covering what my county's commissioners are actually doing and actually saying, and who's the sheriff and what's he doing or not doing, and various community opinions thereof (as in ye olde "letters to the editor"). I'd like to read the work of reporters who competently report, and of editors who competently edit, not these blinkered jokers who so strive to excel at regurgitating the performative pieties du Jour as transmitted from O Holiest Wokedom. As I say, I'd pay good money for good local political coverage, but so far, and for years now, it's not on offer in my neck of the woods. (Hello? Hello? Anybody out there?)
A couple of decades ago, I read an article bemoaning the fact that local newspapers were disappearing, and the worst result of that is there will be no reports to sit in on, and report on, public meetings of local politicians; thus they’re essentially operating in private.
From what I saw, the local newspaper coverage of local politics in my area was mostly fiction. I would go to the occasional council meeting and the reporting did not match my accounts at all. Even if the reporter submitted an honest account the editor would change it to curry favor with his political cronies. Most people found more value in volunteer reports on Facebook. Even then people felt the wrath of the petty tyrants and risked harassment from police, building inspectors, etc.
Yes this is exactly what is happening.
I try not to be too harsh toward the adult infants of the Internet age, as they are the most propagandized generation in human history and are the intellectual and spiritual equivalent of veal calves, having been hobbled at birth by massive infusions of Self-esteem bromides, which seem to have destroyed their immune systems and trained them to respond to any disagreement or disappointment with raging "the world is evil!" tantrums—but that being said...
The aspiring cultural and journalistic elites of our time decided that they would denounce their professions for various crimes of oppression ("the 19th-century founders of our college didn't center the marginalized!") and renounce things like skill, craft, neutrality, intelligent skepticism, and good faith etc in exchange for the thrilling frisson of MORAL CLARITY. All the cool kids had to have this a few years ago, you either had it or were a bigoted Nazi who deserved cancellation or worse, and it was decided that, as the proper moral and intellectual beliefs were already obvious and established, the point of all endeavors (from a TV show to its commercials to your local reporter or novelist) would be to constantly bang people on the head with them—BE BETTER, BIGOT!—at any and all occasions. Morality demanded it!
Ahh, but there's one thing infants are too young and small-brained to comprehend: decisions bring consequences and that crack rock you smoke today may have some negative effects somewhere down the road. And now the angry addled "journalists" of the LA Times will have to stew in their dirty diapers and hope another billionaire or their widow or daughter comes along to change them and give them a new bottle.
The kids at the LA Times decided that being Commissars of Moral Clarity was cooler and more edgy than just being a journalist—these don't "change the world" or bring about a Diverse future—and now will have to learn that not too many people are willing to pay for the same stale Soviet lecture they can get for free at the Daily Kos.
But, as this is California, I'm sure a local DEI department somewhere is still hiring...