If it's Tuesday, we must be in. . . .

In much of the world, publishers need a license to publish.
Think about that.
A license.
One of the laws the Framers discarded when they wrote our amazing Constitution was the one that licensed publishers. They understood the necessity for free speech and a free press, which means, they appreciated dissent.
Of course, it was a little easier for them to appreciate dissent, since they were professional dissenters themselves.
A country formed from a revolution may belikely to be a little more free, but that doesn't give us the right to be complacent about it.
Free speech is the right from which all other rights are derived.
If that matters as much as it should and, especially, if you teach others for whom it should matter, read Charles Glasser Jr.'s International Media Law. The book describes the variations of law in many countries of the world, but the bottom line is, this is the best place to be a member of the press.
Even now.

A Modest Proposal

Newspapers are folding in random cities around the country. While this may or may not signal the death of American newspapers, there is something newspapers can do to help themselves. Of course, it would require working together, which is not something newspapers do well. Since only large sites like Google and the Huffington Post actually sell ads to support the editorial content, why don't newspapers pull their copy from the Web and just continue to publish on dead trees with advertising to pay for it. Many papers would still be in trouble, but they wouldn't be competing against themselves. I don't know anybody who has actually clicked on an ad on the Internet. I'm not naive enough to expect to make money from this blog. Newspaper publishers should stop fantasizing about making money from Internet advertising and tell their readers, "party is over, if you want to read it, buy it, just like in the old days."

The Seattle Post-Intellegencer is no longer a physical newspaper. It exists only in cyberspace. Sort of like this blog. Hearst is on the verge of doing in other papers in the chain, too.
Papers have been dying for many years. New York City once had 14 major dailies. Not all of these papers were great, or even good, but they provided competition for each other. Every good size city used to have at least two daily newspapers. Two opinion pages. Often two political viewpoints.The fewer newspapers, the fewer viewpoints.
It could be argued that a paper on line can offer viewpoints, too, but it's less likely. On line advertising is yet to prove profitable, so publishers are likely to be beholden to the few advertisers they get. There are plenty of cowardly publishers around anyway. Until and unelss online advertising proves profitable, the limited number of businesses who do advertise will have disproportionate power.

Mark Twain's Obituary

When a premature announcement of his demise was published, author Mark Twain remarked, "rumors of my death are premature."
The same could be said today about the death of print. The New Yorker said the last daily newspaper will smack the last sidewalk in May of 2043. They may be correct and if they are, it will be that flagship of the Newhouse chain, the Staten Island Advance. Since the "major" New York dailies ignore the "forgotten borough," (the News and the Post only report when body parts -- not an entire body -- are found at Fresh Kills and the venerable Grey Lady never mentions Richmond County unless it has the chance to make fun of Wagner College) the Advance has become, by default, the best newspaper in America, if you define that as a newspaper you HAVE to read.
But dailies are not the only print medium. Weeklies are strong, at least some of them, even in this recession. And they will continue to be strong if they don't forget the simple truth that made them strong in the first place: they provide context.
If weeklies forget this and imitate their daily brethren with ultra-short stories; if they start to care more about the glitz than the words, they will go the way of the weeklies. But, if they provide their readers with the information they need to be informed voters and citizens, they will survive.
People still read stories of length and substance. Look at Time and Newsweek. And if they will read and digest those stories, they will do the same with stories that impact their lives on a local level.
Readers of weeklies should rise up against the implied insult that they are too shallow to take time to learn about their community.

18% Grey

My brother is old enough to remember series radio. Shows like "Our Miss Brooks" and "Green Lantern." He says he liked the pictures better.
I know what he means. Sometimes the pictures in our minds are much clearer than those handed to us.
Likewise, sometimes black and white is more colorful than color.
One of the disadvantages of digital photography is that photos are always in color. They aren't always printed in color, but the black and white images reproduced on paper from digital color are not the same as black and white images from a negative.
Black and white photography is about light and shadow. It's subtle in tone. Greys are measured in percentages, scientifically, but artistically, they are measured by the eye.The aesthetics are deeper. Ansel Adams' landscapes. Richard Avedon's portraits. Nothing in color can come close.
Digital can't come close to the tactile sensation of working with film. Developing the films itself is mundane, but it's also intensely private. The joy comes when playing the the enlarger. Burning, dodging -- the physical acts are so much more rewarding than "photoshopping." Even more important, you can hold two prints side by side and compare them in various lights.
I'm not digital-bashing here. Digital is quick and convenient and can be economical. But no one should claim to be a photographer without spending hours in a darkroom, alone, creating.

In Like a Hyena

So, it's March 1 and it's snowing, horizontally. Kids are delighted to have a snow day. Teachers are even more delighted to have a snow day.
The weather-folk spent two days predicting the storm of the century. Every storm to them is the potential storm of the century. They are so happy when they get a chance to predict a catacysm. Isn't it nice to see people so easily satisfied with their jobs? The lightest, fluffyest snowflake is for them the harbinger of a cataclysm. And nothing makes a meteorologist happier than an impending cataclysm.
When did it come to this? Once upon a time, the weather-person just gave a weather report. No flash, no flags and certainly no warning of impending disaster. It's winter, it's the Northeast. A snowstorm is not a big deal.
You wouldn't know it by the supermarkets, though. The day before a potential storm the stores are packed with people stocking up on milk and bread. Are all these people originally from the South? They think they are going to be snowed in for days? I blame the corporations that transfer people all over the country. Too many people from warmer climes have descended upon Jersey and are clogging up the supermarket parking lots several times a winter.
Get a grip, people. If you are snowed in for any length of time, it's the perfect opportunity to use the food in the back of the freezer. Real Jerseyans cherish being snowed in, they don't panic.

Wa-a-ay too much

Everyone doesn't have a blog, it just looks that way.
Which brings to mind two questions: Why? And are there really a lot of people out there who care?
The answer to the second question is probably not, but we shouldn't disillusion all those blogmasters who truly believe their every word is enthralling. The answer to the first question is probably arrogance.
So, why am I, a humble child of a simpler age, writing a blog?
I'm told it's the new century's way of networking.
In my day, networking meant attending conferences that included interminable cocktail parties featuring watered-down drinks in overheated rooms, standing for hours in stilettos juggling the drink, a clutch bag and a portfolio full of resumes. Imagine, networking in comfortable shoes without breathing shrimp-gin-garlic breath from a bald, rotund man in a tweed suit and sweater-vest. Who knew?
As for why news anchor-folks choose to blog, I have no idea. Their faces are already too visible. I mean, does Wolf Blitzer sleep?
Familiarity may breed, but it also breeds boredom. Does David Gregory really think we care what he was doing at 8:43 last Sunday? I certainly hope not.
Let me know if I ever get that boring.