Fighting Back

Will Bunch has it exactly right. The media is under attack and we must fight back.

The next 49 days will be critical...for John McCain, Barack Obama, and for America, to be sure.

But it's also going to be do-or-die for an integral part of what once made America special -- a free and independent news media that can make a difference in a functioning democracy.

Because there is a war for the soul of this nation going right now, and we the media are involved -- not as some would like to think, as some kind of passive UN peacekeeping force -- but as a party that is in the acrid smoke of combat, under attack in a manner that's little different from the way that parts of Georgia were overrun by the Russian Army a few weeks ago. And frankly, American newsrooms face a situation that could be described in similar terms to that former Soviet Republic -- nearly defeated, and demoralized, with few if any allies that are willing to come to our aid. And despite the dire situation, most journalists are cruising along toward Nov. 4 as if it's business as usual, and that is what I personally find most alarming.

That we're in a war -- and we're barely fighting back.

Money,Money,Money

Oh, joy, more good news about the news business:

Pay

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Blame the Intertubes

Michael Wolff writes in Vanity Fair about the news business and the profound changes that continue to shake the industry. He describes a meeting where news people are trying to work with software experts to develop something new that will still work as a news operation.

"What about a sliding bar?" Mike Wu, a software engineer, offers just a little grudgingly. "Like from hard to soft news. So you can set it where you want to?"

"Really? From serious broadsheet to scandalous tabloid?" I wonder if this plasticity is miraculous or ludicrous. "From Ben Bernanke to Paris Hilton. And could this work, from unreconstructed crypto-Fascist religious right to loony absolutist left?"

"If we get the algorithm right."

Can the A-word save the news? Because, in its various current forms, the news—as a habituating, slightly fetishistic, more or less entertaining experience that defines a broad common interest—is ending.....

I've persuaded my daughter to become a newspaper reporter. In her first year on the job, she's seen two of the nation's top three newspaper chains—Knight Ridder and the Tribune Company—sold, as well as massive declines in advertising and circulation, not to mention Katie Couric's confirming the foolishness and irrelevancy of network news. "I hope," my daughter says, "you have a plan."

Ridley Scott isn't too happy, either.

Odds and Ends

All kinds of news this morning; looking for something cheery today and not finding it:

Media Stocks Decline

Blogs Aren't a Threat, Magazine Editor Says


Nielsen Says Fewer Are Watching TV


WashPost Gives Up on Radio


Subprime Problems Hit Web Sites

On an entirely different note:

TV Critic Moves to HuffPost