The parent company for the Mercury News is filing for bankruptcy/reorganization and the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle now costs $3 at news stands. These two pieces of information speak volumes about the current plight of the newspaper business. Isn’t it only a matter of time before they stop the presses completely and put everything up online? If this happens, will people be more or less informed?
In a seminar on “Ethics In Journalism” hosted by The Washington Center, former CBS News Correspondent Marvin Kalb expressed his great concern that the purpose of journalism is being greatly undermined by the pursuit of profits and the blurring of the line between news and opinion. Kalb pointed out that news and information goes out across a much wider spectrum these days, but that the news and information lacks depth. Kalb believes that the “soul” of journalism is also the “soul” of democracy and that opinion should have no place in a straight news story.
“The combination of the new technology and the drive for greater profit…(create) a negative force that undermines the purpose of journalism.” And Kalb is not entirely optimistic that this problem can be solved anytime soon. “I don’t see for the moment how journalism works out of this.”
One could argue that many of the problems that San Jose faces today could have been avoided had its citizens been more vigilant and its press more dedicated. Here’s one big example…had the Mercury News assigned two reporters to do an investigative report on the City Hall project before it broke ground, the project probably never would have been built, and the city’s budget would have been spared its close to $25 million annual drain. (For $200 million, the city could have purchased the Sobrato Building and spent $40 million to refurbish the old city hall complex to provide a surplus of government office space!).
It’s too easy to blame the paper. In truth, the citizens of San Jose are the ones to blame for not demanding continued in-depth coverage of their city government, the budget process, and other policy decisions. The Mercury News is just following the limp demands of the San Jose market. Will blogs and sites like San Jose Inside and others pick up the slack and provide the San Jose citizenry with the news and information required to make the important decisions of self-governance? I sure hope so.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “It is to me a new and consolatory proof that wherever the people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”
The Mercury now panders to a bunch of ragtag misfits and has forgotten who compromised the base of their readership when they were a successful newspaper. They can blame the internet but that is not why I, nor many of my friends, canceled subscriptions long ago.
The Merc is a victim of it’s own success. For years it has spoken out in favor of “diversity” and against immigration enforcement. Their influence contributed greatly to the fact that presently a huge percentage of San Jose’s population is more interested in the goings-on in Guadalajara, Saigon, Bangalore, or Beijing than they are in the United States, and wouldn’t read the Mercury News even if they could.
Sorry you can’t accept diversity. But then you write as though you;re a dinosaur from the Triassic period.
I wonder why spokespersons for the left wing in American politics consistently indulge in name-calling in philosophical debate. All genuine multiculturalists understand that using animal names to dehumanize opponents violates two fundamental rules of discourse.
First, the name or label of each person is to be self-chosen and self-designated, not imposed by another.
Second, the use of an animal name is simply a way to attack an argument by demeaning the opponent. It doesn’t defeat the argument.
The right wing has some similar issues in political argumentation, but they make no claim to observe multicultural rules so at least they can’t be accused of hypocrisy in this matter.
SJI consists of a few repetitive haters, who have nothing much to contribute outside of slurs against the Mercury. That and their racist edge they never own up to despite it being clear as day.
John, this is over the top on your part. There is no need to turn this into a racial issue and imply that immigrants can’t read. That in itself is rather ignorant on your part and shows your own racist bias just as you are accusing the Mercury of doing.
Where the hell have you been? This forum is infected with racism.
“In truth, the citizens of San Jose are the ones to blame for not demanding continued in-depth coverage of their city government, the budget process, and other policy decisions.”
Aside from canceling subscriptions what would you have us do?
Isn’t it the supposed job of the ombudsman to keep the Merc from coming off the rails and devolving into a social justice advocacy outlet?
“Will blogs and sites like San Jose Inside and others pick up the slack and provide the San Jose citizenry with the news and information required to make the important decisions of self-governance?”
Based on the censorship performance of SJI ‘editors’ that answer is a resounding no.
Jack Van Zandt had a lefty worldview to be sure, but at least he allowed alternative points of view to be expressed. The same cannot be said for the current crop of liberal thought police filtering SJI posts.
You’re wrong about the “censorship performance” of SJI Editors. My clear sense is that they only remove items that border on slander/libel or contain racially-charged language. There’s no “liberal thought police” filtering SJ Inside…no way.
In terms of my posts, I’ve only had a couple of posts rejected for not being “San Jose centric.” No one has ever asked me to change a word.
> You’re wrong about the “censorship performance” of SJI Editors. My clear sense is that they only remove items that border on slander/libel or contain racially-charged language. There’s no “liberal thought police” filtering SJ Inside…no way.
Well good for you, pete.
Unfortunately, it has not been my experience.
Numerous of my insightful, perspicacious, on-point, and brilliantly crafted postings seem to have disappeared down the internet black hole.
You can always return to Stormfront.org and the other creepy sites you normally traffic your ideas on.
As with any business, it can sometimes be tough to understand why fewer people are buying what someone is selling. In the Mercury News’s case, it was always easier for the paper to blame the Internet, the economy, and other macro reasons, instead of looking inwards. I disagree that the citizens of San Jose are to blame. They voted with their wallets and told the Mercury News that it wasn’t providing value any longer; the Mercury News didn’t want to listen. It wanted to continue to live on the fat profits of classifieds and pretend that people would value the “rigorous editorial process” over raw information.
San Jose Inside, while valuable, hasn’t shown it can be the watchdog of local government. The citizens of San Jose are still waiting for that dog to show up. Maybe it’ll be in the form of Andrew Breitbart’s endeavors (biggovernment.com, bigjournalisim.com, etc.), maybe it’ll be something else. We’re in uncomfortable limbo right now, but the vacuum is growing and someone will step it to fill it.
There is no mention of San Jose in the online masthead of the Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/.
I think the fact encapsulates quite succinctly what is wrong with the paper. The Mercury News does not care about San Jose. It is, in fact, ashamed to be from San Jose. It is largely condescending to and contemptuous of its San Jose readership.
The Mercury News shows this in innumerable ways—but the online masthead distills the condescension and contempt 24/7, every day. There’s no other daily newspaper anywhere in America I know of which harbors such an identity complex.
The Mercury News adds no value whatsoever if it is not providing local coverage. There are better sources for international, national and even regional stories, but the Mercury News should be considered indispensible for its local coverage. However, the paper has largely abdicated local coverage and it implicitely announces the fact every day in its online masthead.
“San Jose” needs to be restored to its rightful place at the center of the paper’s mission. And that doesn’t just mean a few tweaks to the internet site. It means doubling down on local coverage, every day. It means sweating the details to get the facts accurate and not misquoting people to slant a story. And it means assigning dedicated beat reporters to city hall, neighborhood associations, and yes, Mr. Tully, even the SAN JOSE Earthquakes.
But the editorial page is generally more humorous than the comics. And the obits are always fascinating.
> The Mercury News adds no value whatsoever if it is not providing local coverage. There are better sources for international, national and even regional stories, but the Mercury News should be considered indispensible for its local coverage. However, the paper has largely abdicated local coverage and it implicitely announces the fact every day in its online masthead.
Probably true.
But the Mercury has more fundamental problems: stupidity and dishonesty.
Exhibit A is it’s coverage of “global warming.”
The only two places on earth that seem to have NOT heard of “climategate” are the newsrooms of the Noo Yawk Times and The Mercury News.
The Mercury seems to be the newspaper equivalent of the “Light Brigade”, charging headlong into the “Valley of Stupidity”: facts to the right of them, facts to the left of them, facts in front of them, “volleyed and thundered”.
Yet the Mercury forges ahead, publishing lunkhead editorials about “climate change” and the ever more urgent need for “cap and trade” legislation.
At some point, even the most dim witted reader gets tired of going to cocktail parties, reciting the Mercury’s latest blather on “global warming”, and getting looked at like senile sixties flower child flaming out on bad marijuana.
I subscribed to the Merc for many years and I watched it just get thinner and thinner. It went from being a pretty respectable newspaper down to something that would barely cover the bottom of your parrot cage once you threw away all the advertising sections. There came a point a few years ago when there was so little content left that I switched to the Chronicle. The Chron has been shrinking too, but not as much yet. At least it had a good selection of puzzles.
I was in Canada recently and I was amazed that the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail still have big thick papers loaded with good reporting like US papers used to have back in the 1980s. The newspaper industry in the US seems to be bent on self-destruction.
> It’s too easy to blame the paper.
But I LIKE easy.
> In truth, the citizens of San Jose are the ones to blame for not demanding continued in-depth coverage of their city government, the budget process, and other policy decisions.
I don’t think see.
Compare and contrast Rush Limbaugh and Air America.
They are both in the “talk radio” business. One has a mammoth audience and a quarter of a billion dollar long term syndication contract.
The other has no listeners and is bankrupt.
What is the difference?
There ARE newspapers that are succeeding. Then there is the Mercury News.
What would a reasonable person conclude?
The final days of Mercury were forecast when Knight Ridder sold to McClutchy who sold what they did not want to Media News
The final few readers will soon see sorry result when Mercury becomes the Bay Area’s Media / Mercury News Today
“They Should Have Listened To Me” had – what best describes Mercury dying days – ” charging headlong into the “Valley of Stupidity”: facts to the right of them, facts to the left of them, facts in front of them, “volleyed and thundered”. ”
TV stations and KLIV radio with web sites have better local news coverage than poor Mercury who complains about losing readers since they provide no value and don’t realize that ” newspapers are all about local news” since we get national news faster and better from other news sources
Sean Webby’s “investigative reporting” of SJ Police Department’s drunk and resisting arrest “stories” is an example that should be investigated for inaccurate, biased and unethical journalism since he ignored or twisted facts to support progressive Mercury’s biased anti police opinions
The newspaper industry in the US seems to be bent on self-destruction.
This follows other US industries as the MBA has gained footholds into management, and their utter lack of business sense has destroyed many an industry. Look at what they have done to the high-tech industry as they continue to outsource jobs so their bonuses, and stock options, will increase in value.
The Mercury News was a profitable paper, but it was not profitable enough for the MBAs. So they decimated the ranks in order to squeeze more profit, and destroyed the paper.
The MBA degree has been the single worst thing that has ever happened to American business.
> The MBA degree has been the single worst thing that has ever happened to American business.
I’ll take the fifth amendment and, like Obama, vote “present” on the question of whether MBA’s have been good or bad for the Merc.
I suspect that the decline of the Merc and newspapering in general can be tied more to the fad of the “Mass Communication” degree.
In a simpler, more innocent time, newspapers were built around “journalists” who were people like H.L. Mencken. They observed the passing scene with an astute eye, and wrote what they thought with skill and zest.
Then came those dreadful “Mass Communication” zombies, whose job was not to observe and describe, but rather to “communicate” to the “masses”. Communicate what? Why, whatever the poltroons of the New York Times corporation or the Knight Ridder Corporation wanted communicated.
What does “truth” have to do with anything when there are masses to be swayed.
“The MBA degree has been the single worst thing that has ever happened to American business.”
You guys are unbelievable.
Sounds like an MBA, or a wannabe, has their feelings hurt. Sorry if you cannot handle the truth.
Who could imagine that someone who knows something about a industry might be better at running a company than someone who doesn’t? Look how much better General Motors did back in the days when its management came up through the automotive industry.
Who could imagine that someone who knows something about a industry might be better at running a company than someone who doesn’t?
Exactly. While they usually are able to achieve short-term results, the “professional managers” eventually destroy a department, organization, and company.
If you can balance a checkbook you have the technical skills necessary to run a company. But, if you have no idea what the company does, how it creates it’s products, understand the technology behind the product, understand employee skills, and understand the customer’s needs, you will kill that company with your MBA.
Could not happen to a more deserving newspaper outfit. Rather, YELLOW JOURNALISM outfit.
Only the SPORTS is worth the read and even they have fewer resources. Keep the sports staff, jettison the rest.
Print news is dead. It has very little to do with the quality or political slant of the Mercury News.
You could up the quality and political objectivity and they would still be struggling.
It is too facile to throw the Mercury News in with other daily newspapers.
I recall seeing data recently showing that the Mercury News’ absolute circulation is less than that of the Buffalo News, which publishes in a blue collar, downward-spiraling city with a population four to five times smaller than San Jose. Don’t have the link (and the Murk is welcome to correct me if I’m misrecollecting), but the impression the data made on me was unmistakeable: there’s more to the Murk’s problems than general industry malaise.
I grew up in Buffalo and regularly still read its online paper (for free). Unlike in San Jose, there is no pretense in the Buffalo News to being anything other than a hometown paper. People read it, and pay good money to have it delivered daily to their door, because they care about their community (known as the “City of Good Neighbors”) and enjoy having that care for their community reflected back at them in the pages of their daily paper. The Buffalo News doesn’t pretend it’s competing with the papers in Rochester or Toronto for “regional” readership.
The Buffalo News, for example, does not deep-six coverage of the minor-league Buffalo Bisons in favor of coverage of the big league Toronto Blue Jays, whereas the Mercury News largely overlooks the SAN JOSE Earthquakes in order to give space to the San Francisco Giants, and particularly for a long time Barry Bonds, a man who (to my knowledge) has never set foot in this town.
In 2004, the Metro noted that a Stanford media watchdog group had castigated the Murk for an excessive fixation on Bonds; at the same time the paper was studiously ignoring the fight of Earthquakes fans to keep the team in San Jose. Only a week before the Metro piece, I had had a telephone conversation with the Murk sports editor complaining of the poor coverage of the Quakes’ plight. He replied that there were space and resource limitations (this is pre-Media News). I replied that I thought that the excessive coverage of Bonds could be scaled back to accomodate more coverage of the hometown Quakes, who were at the time defending national champions. The sports editor disagreed—which is why I still recall the Stanford study six years later. The Mercury News bigwigs always have an excuse for their obvious failings, which go far beyond any left-wing political slant.
I along with many fellow San Joseans are no longer buying the excuses or the paper.