Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Paper: Now With Fewer Words

I noticed recently the Daily Catbox-Liner And Semi-Covert Democrat, which is what we have in Indy instead of a newspaper,* had revamped their Editorial page in such wise as to mostly eliminate those pesky, 500-or-so-word "tl;dr" editorials and I'd briefly mourned the loss of such a cheap and easy source of snark.

This just shows my lack of faith in the professional committment and journalistical ability of America's Print Pundits; the low-hanging fruit has brought itself down even lower. Today, they've unveiled a new, multi-part feature occupying all of that page:

An editorhetorical comic strip! In color!

And a classic piece of leftie-worldview self-affirmation it is, too, at about the same reading-comprehension level as a Chick tract and slightly less entertaining.

So if you have been wondering as have I, in our dull and unenlightened way, just exactly what the paper's opinion of our mental horsepower might be, wonder no more!

I would'na given them the link but it's almost got to be seen to be believed.

(Related: Local real journalist Ruth Holliday's pointers to newspaper deflation. Geesh, it's like sittin' in a hospital room with a terminally ill friend, knowing the end is inevitable...).
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* What's your town got instead of a newspaper? Somebody's got to keep those pulp mills running!

12 comments:

Stranger said...

I'm so old my birth certificate has Roman numerals - so I will not drop the daily fishwrappers until I make the one way ride to the Olde Plantation.

But unless Gannett and the rest start picking up younger readers they are dead. And I don't see that happening, ever.

Allen Mutter's blog, Confessions of a newsosaur, has an excellent overview of the media, by the way.

Stranger

Ken said...

I thought that was the definition of newspaper.

BobG said...

You're right; that cartoon strip has to be seen to be believed.
I quit reading the papers years ago, I prefer my news online where I can look up more than one source to verify information.

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."
-Thomas Jefferson

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed."
-Mark Twain

Jim said...

Gene Pulliam is spinning in his grave. I agree with Bob, it defies belief.

Most people probably have no idea what this kind of infantilism means to men and women who still --however quaintly -- believe in the mission of newspaper journalism.

Ed Rasimus said...

I'm still teaching State/Local government in the local college, so despite my disgust I subscribe to the Dallas Morning Fishwrap. It is a perfect class-room example of what journalism is not. My attitude gets corrected every afternoon when the mailman brings my Wall St. Journal--I still wonder how I can get the day's paper on the day of publication through the US Mail. It is a puzzlement.

Anonymous said...

Ah, we had the Indianapolis Times, the Recorder (nation's oldest African-American newspaper), the Indianapolis Star, and I learned to read growing up with the Indianapolis News which my parents subscribed to.

Instead of a real newspaper, we now have a grade school level socialist newsletter.

Wow, it looks like the Indianapolis Recorder is still around!!! Look: http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/

Shootin' Buddy

Crucis said...

That's strange. Gary Varvel is usually a conservative cartoonist. At least his syndicated cartoons are. Here's an example from gocomics.com.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20100714/i/r2146359646.jpg?x=400&y=256&q=85&sig=R9Gk2em0jf345cIWfL9wlw--

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I agree, I was shocked that Varvel would have done something like this.

So I imagine somebody else had the brilliant idea and wrote the script, and as the local editorial cartoonist, it was his responsibility to draw it.

At least I hope so.

Montie said...

OMG, what a bunch of crap! So the Indy Star has figured out a way to sink even deeper into the bowels of socialist hell and become even more irrelavent in doing so. Obvously a blatant attempt to appeal to the very folks the cartoon depicts in its hopey-changey storyline.

If Varvel is indeed of a conservative bent as crucis says, then they must have waved a huge wad of cash under his nose to draw the panels for "The Path to Hope, 'cause we can't read except in cartoon format"

Tam said...

"HELP! I'M BEING HELD PRISONER IN A COMMUNIST CARTOON FACTORY! -GARY V."

Roberta X said...

I'm sure Mr. Varvel likes to eat. He works for the paper; they say "draw," he pulls out his pen and thinks of payday.

Ed Foster said...

I find it somewhat amusing that the only paper in New York City that is growing is the 90+% conservative New York Post.

I find it howlingly funny that the first paper to sell out in the local Stop & Shop, often the only paper to sell out, is the New York Post. We're 120 miles away from NYC, and I doubt the locals really give a hang about the latest inaneties of Sheldon Silver or Charley Wrangel.

Perhaps the Hartford Courant wouldn't be bleeding red ink from every pore if it had an occasional editorial that was just a tad to the right of hard-core pinko.