All The News That’s Fit to Print

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dJEkdJdUM4w/Sb7LNjrouoI/AAAAAAAAAK8/bgV77IymZvg/s1600-h/3259447158_493a2372a0.jpg”img style=”margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 133px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dJEkdJdUM4w/Sb7LNjrouoI/AAAAAAAAAK8/bgV77IymZvg/s200/3259447158_493a2372a0.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313908044120767106″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;” T/spanhis week my family made a commitment…to a newspaper. Weekend delivery of the Old Gray Lady, otherwise known as the a href=”http://nytimes.com/”iNew York Times/i/a, began at our house this Sunday.br /br /We’ve been meaning to do it for ages. There always seemed to be a reason not to: an impending move, an impending baby (who is sleeping on my lap as I write this), trips to take. Then came Thursday. I read the umpteenth account of how newspapers were dying and realized that my daughter might not have the experience I did.br /br /Sundays as a kid I would ruffle through the local paper. The comics were always first. Garfield, Peanuts, Bloom County, and Calvin and Hobbes awaited in technicolor glory. Then there was the arts section. Movies to read about, theater to see. Then came the front page and the opinion section and maybe home and garden.br /br /When I went into journalism, it was in part inspired by my experience as a reader of newspapers. The idea that my daughter’s generation might only know the allure of newsprint as a cultural artifact saddens me. The idea that newspapers might disappear altogether, replaced by unedited, even more underpaid citizen bloggers frightens me.br /br /It’s not that I think journalists need to have J-School degrees. With all of these significant features, the soft drugs help to make ED treatment convenient http://www.fundacionvision.org.pa/flashxml/bannerrotatorfx-expo/ cialis online and more effective than other generic drugs of other brands. viagra online no prescription If a medicine is responsible then you could have an instant help from their side. Matter of fact one of the first signs that many chiropractors see in fundacionvision.org.pa generic cialis patients with chronic back or neck pain is poor breathing. It works more effectually if the person cannot hold him for more than one minute than he should definitely consult to an expert regularly. levitra sale I don’t have one. Some of the best journalists I know came to it later in life from other careers. My fear of what will happen if newspapers disappear is rooted in an understanding of what the process of editing brings to the news. Editors, which most bloggers lack, push good stories to be great stories in both news content (asking reporters to get more sources, finding holes, etc) and in writing.br /br /Bloggers and citizen journalists for the most part have to self censor. Most aren’t very good at that, which is how we end up with sp many rumors reported on the internet as news. Also, while individual citizens can be wonderful watchdogs of government and industry, who watches the less glamourous, less “interesting” things. Newspapers — at least the few community newspapers that still have reporters — cover everything from sewage treatment centers to the mosquito control boards of this world. And if you don’t think corruption is possible at a msoquito control board, I have a story to tell you about misappropriation of funds.br /br /Without community newspapers to cover local governments, so much of what makes a community a community falls through the cracks.br /br /To me, papers perform three basic functions (a belief passed on to me by my former editor, William Lobdell): they serve as community cheerleader, community watchdog and the paper of record. I want my daughter to grow up in a world where that’s still true.br /br /Meanwhile, here at the house, said daughter is waking up and looking to me to be her food source. I tell ya, between cluster feedings and growth spurts, I’m starting to feel a little like a dairy cow confined to the milking pen. Moo.br /span style=”font-size:85%;”br /Photo by a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlos_seo/”carlos_seo./a/span