Moon(ie) over Washington

I normally ache just a little bit every time I hear of another newspaper -- be it in Detroit, Denver, Seattle, etc. -- that is closing shop or cutting back its frequency or going to an all-Internet publication, but when I heard the latest case of what appeared to be more bad news for the industry, I shed not one tear -- in fact, I would not mind being around for its demise.

The paper here is the Washington Times, a relatively young publication, owned and operated by the Rev. Sun Young Moon and his Moonie church and a Right Wing, anti-Democratic publication, a la Fox News.

The paper last week published its last Sunday edition and since it has no Saturday edition, it will only be a five-day-a-week paper now.

The Washington Times also announced that it has ended a Web project called, "TheConservatives.com," which, according to the WaTimes, "was intended to provide a platform to allow allow "the Joe the Plumbers of the world to speak up to major thinkers, like Newt Gingrich..." (In case anyone doubted that the paper was run by Right Wing reactionaries.)

The paper is also completely cutting its sports department.

I realize that not everyone, and probably not many, of its staffers adhered to its crazy political agenda, and its never good to see professionals, especially in my profession, lose their jobs, but this particular employer is evil, and the world would be better off without it.

What's the Story?

These two headlines were cheek-to-cheek on the Sun-TImes Web site this weekend.

Several gun and knife arrests reported at Taste of Chicago
July 4, 2009
FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS

and

Police say Taste peaceful, credit heavier presence
July 4, 2009
(no byline)

So what is it? Is this year's Taste of Chicago a madhouse of thugs and gangbangers and people bringing guns and knives into the crowded streets, or is it a lovely weekend where attendees walk around with parasols, sipping lemonade, tipping their caps at fellow tourists and Chicagoans and those leaving on public transportation give up their seats to ladies and the elderly? Hmmm?

Unfortunately the latter, 'peaceful' story relies on the word of the police and city officials, who would say "everything is fine here," even if downtown was burning amid armed rioting.

Two things here -- one; if your mother (or the city) says the Taste of Chicago is safe and peaceful, CHECK IT OUT, and two; the perceived safety many have of of this city, even downtown, is an illusion.

Bad Citizens

No filters. No boundaries. You post it, it's as good as real news. That's how CNN bills its "citizen journalism" site. Last week a "citizen journalist" posted a tip about Apple Computers CEO Steve Jobs being rushed to a hospital after suffering a heart attack. Of course, the "news tip," posted on CNN's Web site by esteemed reporter "Johntw," was untrue, but wasn't found out until it had been picked up, passed around and created such a twitter in the tech and financial circles that Apple stock fell about 10 percent because of this "news."

So, this is the future of journalism?

"No Paper Today"

Can you imagine what would happen if an established, "Mainstream Media" daily newspaper were to put out a paper on Tuesday, then on Wednesday they just put the same paper out on the streets, with the new headline, "No Paper Today"? Under the headline, there would be a one or two-sentence explanation, saying something to the effect of "we're working on some interesting things" or "we're really busy with book-keeping, vacations and um, a couple of our editors have dentist appointments today," therefore there will be no paper today. "We'll be back tomorrow though. Unless tomorrow is a Saturday, in which case we'll be back in like three or four days."

There would be an outcry! People would say newspapers are dying! They're damned near dead! They're already in the grave, just bury them now!

But that doesn't happen with newspapers. Love or hate them, praise or decry them, there are at least four major newspapers in the Chicago area that are published every day, day in and day out, even on Sundays. Editors and reporters, no matter how sick they sometimes are, no matter how much stuff they are dealing with at home, no matter how much they may have drunk the night before, come in and get the job done and the next day there is a newspaper on your corner or at the newsstand at your office.

But what about bloggers, especially those who love to write on about how bloated and decrepit and behind the times newspapers are? These guys who say the future is in twittering, facebooking, "citizen journalisming" being "mobile journalists" etc.? What happens when one of these self-righteous folks goes to some "citizen journalist" conference or has a medical appointment, or can't find their pants in the morning (or afternoon or whenever they wake up and walk over to their "home office")? You know what happens? They say, "no reporting today" or their "news" section of their site will say "last updated 3 days ago" but their links to the grown-up media will still be up and they promise to be back "soon" with hard-hitting MSM criticism or earnest "reporting" on a Community Policing or Water Reclamation District meeting.  

A bunch of cowardly lions, these types are.

    

The World's Oldest Profession

Recently at work, the phrase "the world's oldest profession" came up in a story that related to prostitution. Besides the fact that using such a phrase connotes some sort of Victorian imagery of gentlemen and "ladies of the night," that whitewashes the abuse, drug addiction and crime that are part of the real world of prostitution, I hate this cliche because it's a cliche that really isn't true. 

The cliche supposes that prostitution was around before ancient and prehistoric people could figure out any other possible endeavor they wanted to do for a living. I have no doubt at all that back in some cave a million or so years ago, some guy [it's always the guys] wanted to have sex and someone else [a layyyyydeyyyy?] didn't, or before she agreed to [if she wasn't just clubbed over the head by her suitor] thought for a second and said, "what's in it for me"? This also supposes that there was money to be exchanged, and while humans today are different in many ways from humans millions of years ago, I have no doubts that given the option, a bunch of prehistoric sorts sitting around the cave saying, "OK, guys, we need to invent something of value we can give to one another in exchange for goods or services -- we can make it out of stone or metal and put our faces on it and some birds or other animals and if one of us wants that leg of buffalo the other guy has, I can give him a handful of this ... what should we call it ... 'money' for his trouble." At which point of of the other guys in the cave most likely said, "Or we can have more sex." I'm thinking the cavemen went for the sex before the money. So, without money, there's no prostitution, right?

If you're a biblical sort, and think the world began with two humans, a man and a woman, who had dominion over everything, obviously the first profession, was farming, even if all they did was pick fruit off of trees. According to the bible, though, since Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they didn't have to work, but as soon as they took that damned apple, they were cast out and instantly realized they were naked and they were shameful, not hungry, so they reached for something to cover themselves up with. So, biblically, it would seem that the tailors and clothiers were the world's first profession, likely soon followed up by farming. 

People way back when, bible folk or not, needed to eat, clothe themselves and have shelter. I mean, who's thinking of sex if they are starving, cold or homeless? (OK, I know. Men.) So in terms of things you need to do, it seems sex, and sex for money, had to be at least fourth or fifth on the list of jobs. [Let's see now, World's Oldest Profession -- tailor; then farmer, then hunter, then contractor, then carpenter, then thief, because you know there had to be some thievery going on.]

If you think of what prehistoric people etched on the walls of their caves, you had hunters, farmers, and the animals they hunted. No sex or prostitutes, (until those naughty Pompeiians!) 

As far as doing things that weren't absolutely necessary in order to live, unlike hunting and gathering, you could say the first activity humans engaged in was that cave etching/drawing. So, as far as chosen professions go, it would seem that journalism is the world's oldest profession. [Insert punchline here].

Bursting Into Bloggerdom!

Only a matter of weeks after I launched it, this humble little and often aesthetically messy blog is now part of a big-time blog network. Yesterday I received notice from BlogBurst that shoelessjames has been accepted into their realm. What is BlogBurst? Well, it is, to quote them, "a news service bringing quality blogs onto highly-trafficked, high-brand mainstream publisher sites like the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today and Reuters.com."

(Unfortunately they left out the Chicago Sun-Times, but that's almost understandable considering it's a penny stock company at this point.) 

Is this crazy, or what? I have no idea what their criteria are for judging what a quality blog is, but somehow I must have passed their tests or gotten under their radar somehow and slipped in. It is ironic, I think, that my chosen profession at this point and for the past couple decades, is what many are calling a dying industry, i.e., the printed news, and the news sources (like the Post, Chronicle and Sun-Times) are scurrying about like deckhands on a sinking ship looking for any bit of something that will float to grab on to in the hopes they can stay afloat for a while until they figure out how to survive. So if I can help to bolster one of those floating scraps of the ship, well, so be it. If however, this turns out to be the engine that makes someone, somewhere, read what I've said and offer me a chance to join an even bigger or well-known network to shout my opinions and odd musings, well, that would be even better.

Not that BlogBurst is all that, though. I've noticed that in stories on the sun-times web site, at least, the BlogBurst posts that appear as "related stories" often have nothing to do with the news story they are tagged onto. For instance, it's not uncommon for the Sun Times News Group to do a story about a fatal car crash and the BlogBurst "related stories" referenced will be about a baseball player who has the same surname as the crash victim being sent down to the minors, or if, say, a Toyota Prius was involved in the crash, one of the BlogBurst links will be to a story on an auto site on how to shop for a Hybrid automobile. 

Even more absurd is that 90 percent of the blogs I have bloglisted are better written and researched that this humble blog (I'm just dripping with humility, aren't I?), so this just reinforces the fact that there are no qualifications or prerequisites at all for blogging, and one need not even know what one is talking about to blog, but hopefully I can attain a certain degree of quality of writing and still entertain and amuse (and maybe inform, if I may be so presumptuous) anyone who drops in to read, and maybe, just maybe, I'll attain maybe just a small, teeny tiny, degree of recognition somewhere (hey, it's not like I write for the money!).