Raising Two Americans

I am all to aware about the myriad of reasons why newspapers are failing and journalism, in general, is in decline.

And journalists — newspaper journalists specifically — who blame the reader (the consumer, essentially) should usually be admonished, and rightly so.  The consumer (reader) simply wants the product (information) faster and in a way traditional newspapers can’t (or won’t) provide it (via TV, the Web, handheld or social media, etc.).

But where the reader can be held accountable is in WHAT information they want. Not enough people seem to care about the things that really matter anymore. Maybe that’s a problem with America, in general.

Here’s a prime example I find humorous.

The city of Atlanta is in the midst of its most important mayoral election in decades. The health care reform being debated in Congress, as well as in the court of public opinion, will affect virtually every Amercian in some way. We’re fighting a war in Afghanistan. And the H1N1 strain of the flu — swine flu, if you will — is spreading faster than expected and is killing our young people.

Yet, these were the three most popular stories on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for last week:

1. UGA football player arrested, suspended

2. Winder man dies from rattlesnake bite

… and my favorite …

3. Man gropes nurse who was helping deliver his baby

The last one is so good, I might just have to post it myself.

This entry was posted on October 19, 2009 at 1:57 am and is filed under Humor, Journalism with tags Atlanta, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Internet, newspapers, Winder Ga.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.