Are Newspapers Doomed?
Great article by the always immensely readable Joseph Epstein on the future of newspapers.
I share his doubts about their lack of quality, as has been expressed numerous times on this weblog before:
About our newspapers as they now stand, little more can be said in their favor than that they do not require batteries to operate, you can swat flies with them, and they can still be used to wrap fish.
Epstein is always good in finding great quotes from other wise man:
[…] I am in the condition of George Santayana, who wrote to his sister in 1915 that he was too old to “be influenced by newspaper argument. When I read them I form perhaps a new opinion of the newspaper but seldom a new opinion on the subject discussed.”
And, he has the definitive word on newspaper editorials:
I almost never read the editorials, following the advice of the journalist Jack Germond who once compared the writing of a newspaper editorial to wetting oneself in a dark-blue serge suit: “It gives you a nice warm feeling, but nobody notices.”
However, please read the whole piece, not just these highlights.
[x]#1620 fan maandag 2 januari 2006 @ 19:32:37
© eamelje.net 2001-2019. Alle rechten voorbehouden
2 kommentaren
eamelje.net op 4 januari 2006 @ 17:28:42
Gefeliciteerd, ik zag het Ros Beyaard in wording al.
[En natuurlijk probeer ook ik gewoon geld te verdienen door artikelen aan kranten te verkopen waarin hun ondergang voorspeld wordt. Maakt het uit.]
eliane op 4 januari 2006 @ 15:27:36
Fijn. Heb ik je al verteld dat ik naar de boekenbijlage gepromoveerd ben?