I never got around to thanking my mother for giving birth to me at such a propitious moment in history. FDR and I got inauguerated together and he said,"Infamy" when I was approaching my ninth birthday. For the next four years war news dominated the newspapers and the maps of Europe and the Pacific were my daily geography lessons. When it all ended in the summer of 1945 I wondered if that spelled the end of newspapers. What could they possibly write about?
Many of the ten papers in NYC have since withered away but none of them have any trouble filling their pages with calamities, scandals, police blotters, menacing weather or real or imagined nefarious acts. Even as good news is hard to find, hard news makes good copy.
The newsroom as depicted in His Girl Friday, Citizen Kane or The Daily Planet of Clark Kent have long ago faded into the tapestry of Americana but the investigative reporting that nailed Nixon continues to expose the lies and misdeeds in high places.
I've never counted them but I read that there are currently 29 wars or skirmishes happening at this moment; enough to insure that fish will be always find a wrapping paper......were it not for the Internet.
Even if universal peace broke out there are always bulletins such as the one I read about just last week. The ruling governors in the U.K. have concluded (after five centuries) that the "i" before "e" except after "c" rule is to no longer be taught due to the ever-growing listof exceptions. I'm glad they've finally cleared that up.
Now we are on the verge of a virtual world. It's tough on folks like me. My tactile sense is threatened. Even as the news is stale by the time I'm reading about it over my morning cereal I still require the feel and fold of the newspaper. And what is there to soak up the spilled milk?
It does seem that the big news at the close of the first decade of the millennium is the demise of print media. As newspapers disappear their final headline announces their own obituary.
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In a sense I imagine we are both “old school” but insofar as the news of the day is concerned we differ. Being a very early riser, by the time the newspaper finds its way to our front door I have already seen all the news that’s fit to see on the internet. I do scan the Times with breakfast but only because there is no computer in the breakfast room - a condition that may soon change with the addition of a laptop.
ReplyDeleteI hate picking up that last crumb with my fingers stained with printer’s ink. Reason enough to get a laptop.
Fred