Erdos Had The Number First

So, I’m probably going to lose my Liberal Card for this (I know, you always knew we carried cards) but WHAT THE CRAP IS MoveON DOING?

The (venerable?) Chicago Tribune, reporting that it was planning some layoffs
Chicago Tribune | Tribune plans layoffs; fewer than 100 `likely’

is being petitioned by MoveOn

to not do this because

This means watered-down coverage of local, state and national news. Politicians and corporations who should be held accountable by vigilant watchdog journalism will instead be covered by a staff that is stretched too thin.

M’kay. I don’t think they’ve read the Tribune in a while. The Ol’Trib is not a vigilant watchdog of anything but their own profitability. Tribune Media is not whatever MoveOn thinks they are. They go on to say

“The key for us is to get people to recognize that the Tribune’s business model is at fundamental odds with a good journalism model,” he said. “We want to bring more public attention on these cuts and slow the trend, to bring them more in line with a good journalism model.”

Like Vicini in the Princess Bride, they keep using these words, but I do not think they mean what they think they mean.

The problem is that newspapers are not making money. If MoveOn really wants to save jobs, they should buy newspapers. Understand this: NO ONE CARES ABOUT NEWSPAPERS!

The worst part about this is that I happen to agree with MoveOn that a weakened press is a danger to democracy in this country. The fact that we, the citizenry, has weakened the press ourselves is a saddening fact. It is, however, a fact that petitions are not going to change. You cannot alter economic reality with this kind of speech. Buy ads, or Buy papers, don’t send petitions.