My ode to the daily newspaper.
Gun nuts
My Ode to the Newspaper
Indeed, technology is changing our lives at a rapid pace. The
future is conceited and illiberal which makes you feel like a
straggler. You feel as though you’re in a marathon to keep up with the
pack. In order to do so, you need money and, in these times, cash is
harder to come by. Due to peer pressure, I often come off as a
Luddite.
I guess, at my age, I get sentimental about the past. I try not to
be selective about it, but there was a lot of negative stuff in the
past. There are things I miss and things I don’t. For example, store
burglar alarms that went off in the dead of night. They would ring
incessantly, until storeowners would come and shut the things off.
They sounded like fire alarms and sleeping was off the table. I don’t
miss people not picking up after their dogs. Every day, I would find
a trophy on my front lawn. I don’t miss radio stations playing the
same songs over and over. I don’t miss taking my roll of film to the
local drug store to get it developed, which usually took a week—and
that was provided they didn’t lose the order! I don’t miss returning
records because they’d been scratched, and debating with the store
clerk that the fault wasn’t mine! And, I don’t miss cops stopping to
interrogate me, all because I had long hair.
One thing I will miss is the daily newspaper.
For just ten cents you’d get news stories that were written by
investigative reporters, accompanied by world-class photography.
These were primarily black and white photos until the early ‘70’s.
You’d get sports, entertainment news, stocks and business reports, the
editorial page, comics, and the local weather report. There were the
listings for Television and even radio shows, and display ads for
movies. There were the classifieds for selling stuff, and for jobs.
Advertising was not obnoxious like it is on TV--you could just ignore
it. With the newspaper, you didn’t have plug it in. The only
negative thing was getting ink on your fingers!
Some say that newspapers are yesterday’s news. Not so when I was
young: There were various editions. The morning edition was a review
of the previous days’ news, but the afternoon edition reported what
had happened between 8 and 11 a.m. that day! Then the evening edition
came, which reported news of the entire day you’d bought it. If you
lived in a major metropolitan city, you’d hear the newsvendors yelling
the headlines about the major news events of the day! The giant
printing presses never slept.
I will miss newspaper headlines. You can’t belittle bold type
headlines! The last major headline I remember was: “Terrorists Destroy
World Trade Center.” Other headlines I remember include: “JFK Shot!”
“Man Lands on the Moon!” “Beatles Invade USA!” “Nixon Resigns!” “NY
Mets Win World Series!” So on and so forth. Nothing can ever replace
the headline!
The print media was king because network news was only 21 minutes
long, but the newspaper told the entire story in detail. When cable
news got started in the late 70’s, the newspaper had a major
challenger. Then came the Internet. It was the beginning of the
end.
“Letters to the Editor” was the only interactive feature about
the newspaper; it permitted a reader to actually contribute their
personal view. The editor decided which letters got printed and which
ones got tossed. Television had the “man on the street” interviews.
The Net has blogs to which anybody can publish an article.
When I was young, I sold the Sunday paper on a corner of a major
intersection. I made 15 bucks a week and spent it on records. In the
summer, I sold the evening edition of a daily paper. I even delivered
it every night in my neighborhood from my bicycle. The newspaper
gave me my very first job. Six years later, I sold the underground
paper known as “The L.A Free Press” on the Sunset Strip. Funny, they
used to call it the “Freep.”
For many years now, I’ve been walking my dogs to the newspaper
machine, putting quarters in the slot and opening the trap door to
retrieve my possession. For us “old timers,” nothing beats a morning
cup of coffee and reading the events of the previous day. My dad did
it, as did my grandfather. Now that tradition is about to end. Hell,
I don’t care what the editorial policy of the paper is, as long they
do their job reporting the news! I just love the format of the
newspaper.
I think that newspapers, like vinyl records, may soon become
obsolete, but they will never be extinct. Newspapers had their heyday
for many decades, so I guess I must concede their end. Thus, I lift
my can of domestic beer and propose a toast: Here is to the
newspaper!
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Off topic video: If you are a aficionado of 80's punk music please
clink on the link. If you do not care for this type of entertainment,
just ignore it.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4947150/13172262