June 24, 2006
And speaking of the death of the mainstream media
Seattle Times heir Ryan Blethen is calling on his readers to "Demand an independent press". In fact, what Blethen is really demanding is that the FCC impose competition-restricting regulations that would help the Blethen family in its financial tousle with the Hearst-owned Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Some free and friendly business advice to Ryan Blethen: the biggest threat to your business is not competition, but the fact that you are wedded to a product that fewer and fewer people are choosing to buy.
Blethen's column also includes links to some astro-turf "media watchdog" websites. Among the sites I found by browsing these links is this one: "ACT NOW! Click here to crack down on fake news". Joni Balter, call your office!
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 24, 2006
11:16 AM | Email This
1. I hope the Blethen family has saved up lots of money outside of the paper, particularly if Ryan is taking it over. Between these misguided business moves and Ryan's really poor writing skills, the paper has no where to go but down.
2. The MSM didn't mind it when they controlled all the news back in the day when the 3 networks were all we had. What Blethen really mean is they want liberals to be in charge of all media, not that they want all media to be fair, balanced or independent.
As a member of the liberal biased media, Ryan's cry rings hollow. Sweet justice is more like it.
3. What is it about freedom of speech Liberal find so dangerous?
4. From the FreePress website:
The Free Press Action Fund is a social welfare organization advocating for changes in public policy that will lead to a more diverse and public service-oriented media system.
Translation:
More government regulation.
5. I was hoping for the death of the left wing bloggers as well!
6.
The Free Press Action Fund is a social welfare organization....
Let us parse this out, in addition to what swassociates above mentioned.
"Social welfare organization" = liberal, progressive activism, 99 times out of 100. The idea of "social welfare" is a tired, vague term open to interpretation and re-interpretation, too, and is useless as a real description of what this organization really does.
This makes the news media sound like an arm of the "social welfare" party, doesn't it? And if it hee haws like a donkey, there's a good chance that donkeys are running it (in more ways than one, of course.) I didn't think the job of news media was to promote social welfare--there are plenty of tax dollar funded organizations that already do that. Perhaps the function of news media is to...umm...well, you know, REPORT the NEWS.
...advocating for changes in public policy that will lead to a more diverse and public service-oriented media system.
Ah, I see that the job of the news media is to advocate for change in public policy. Okay, I suppose so, but whose public policy is being followed? Anything but Bush, I guess.
This whole notion of a "more diverse and public service-oriented media system" makes me laugh--it's so sincere and progressive, but so clearly NOT diverse and NOT public-service-oriented, that I wonder if Blethen himself wrote this copy?
7. dcat,
We do not want that. We WANT the nutjobs like Goldstein out there in the bright light of day spewing for everyone to see and hear. They are our best advertisement for keeping Democrats out of office.
So I say we should thank heir goebbels Goldstein and his propaganda ministry. He only makes our job much easier.
8. The Blethans can't be all bad if they are against the state income tax.
9. The Blethans can't all be bad if they are against the state death tax, aka as the estate tax. That's the worst thing the Legislature has done in decades.
10. It's time people wake to the hard cold reality of something... the media is a business, just like everything else. As a business, it needs to make money to cover it's costs and make a profit for it's owners (usually shareholders). I don't know about you guys at your jobs, but I personally, as a employee of one of these "evil" media companies, like to get my paycheck every two weeks.
If a company can't turn a profit, it either goes under, or sells out to a new owner that can. Blethan of all people should realize this. Given the explosion of media outlets in the last decade, it is extremely hard to turn a profit these days due to increased competition. So either companies must merge, or they go under, or they find a niche market (like the Stranger).
Oh, and before Blethan gets his knickers all up in a bunch, he should realise that it is extremely hard to buy all the media outlets in a Seattle sized market. There are over a dozen local television stations... Tribune only owns two. There are two major Seattle daylies... Tribune owns neither. I have no idea how many radio stations Tribune has, but it's nowhere near a majority of the over 100 plus Am and FM stations in the market.
Trust me, 30 years ago, you had a "bland, monolitic media machine". Today, with the hundreds of ways people get there info, nothing could be farther from the truth.
11. Maybe Ryan should learn from Bill Keller. Just find lots of classified information, and publish it! No need to hire high priced reporters, just have lots of discouraged intel people who are willing to sell out their country.
NYT is willing to sell their souls for sales, so what is Ryan willing to do?
12. Ryan just does not sound ready to ever take over the reins of his family's newspaper empire.
He sounds more suitable for a position at the "Workers' World Daily", or some like communist-type newspaper.
13. I'm with pbj; whaaaa! libs and media love the evil free market when ad revenues are skyrocketing; when the cards turn, it's 'not fair' or a right wing conspiracy; welcome to the real world, my sheltered little friend Ryan;
14. The formula for a successful paper depends entirely on advertising. Ideally, 60% of the print space needs to be in advertising . In order to attract advertisers, a newspaper must attract readers. It's that simple. Mr. Blethen needs to take publishing 101.
15. The Times is part of the "bland, monolithic media machine". That is why I no longer subscribe. Baby Blethen should pay more attention to why his family paper is losing readers instead of asking for a government bailout. Subscribers pay the bills. The next time long time subscribers call up to say they are cancelling the paper for specific reasons, Junior might actually leave his well furnished office and and encourage his customer service department to take these situations seriously instead of a "Who cares?" attitude.