Mencken (photo) loved newspapering. But he did his best to be impervious to the industry ballyhoo, and I think he’d have enjoyed the latest from Jack Shafer, press critic for Slate, which the Washington Post Company owns. Shafer’s headline is Democracy’s Cheat Sheet: It’s time to kill the idea that newspapers are essential for democracy. […]
Read MoreHome-printed newspapers, 1939 style
See the Nieman Journalism Lab blog, which also mentions more current plans for home printing.
Read MoreThe trash factor: A big reason why newspapers are in trouble? And how can they cope with it?
Despite the dark humor in my Washington newspaper novel, The Solomon Scandals is also an exercise in nostalgia—taking us back to the oft-glamorous heyday of big dailies. Why are newspapers struggling today, by contrast? No small reason is The Trash Factor, which I’ll get to. That’s trash as in trash room, not trash as in […]
Read MoreClosing of the Rocky Mountain Daily News
Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo. The owners of a newspaper where I worked in the 1970s, the Morning Journal in Lorain, Ohio, the inspiration for “Marseilles, Ohio” in The Solomon Scandals, have just filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. Scandals isn’t merely about corruption in government and the press. It’s also about a much […]
Read MoreA ‘snarky’ critique of modern humor? What would Saul Alinsky have thought? Or Lewis Carroll?
Several kinds of snarks exist in Lewis Carroll‘s poem The Hunting of The Snark (free online). Certain of these creatures bite; others scratch. David Denby, author of Snark: Polemic in Seven Fits, may been thinking of the teeth and claws when he titled his book. I look forward to catching up with Snark even if […]
Read MoreWill politicians grow more crooked if newspapers dwindle in number and influence?
How good are newspapers as corruption-fighters or -preventers? As noted in The Brass Check, a Chicago Tribune reporter actually tried to discredit The Jungle, Upton Sinclair‘s fictionalized depiction of the Chicago Stockyards. Fairly or not, one survey found that four-fifths of Americans do not believe most of what’s in the New York Times—perhaps not so […]
Read More‘Watchdogs are dozing’ in D.C., say two Politico writers
The Solomon Scandals, begun 30 years ago on an ancient electric typewriter, is partly about unsavory ties between the press, government and business. But in a way it’s also a tribute to the bygone days when daily newspapers—without so much Net-based competition for readers and ads—could more easily splurge on investigative journalism. And now? Here’s […]
Read More