The Newspaper Dead Pool Growing

The Newspaper Dead Pool Growing
December 12th, 2006

More
than 100 New York Newsday reporters and editors signed a letter of
protest against their boss, Dennis FitzSimons for widespread cuts that
have sliced about one-third of the paper’s editorial staff over the
past three years.

Can you imagine 100 employees at HP or IBM doing that? Yet, the
software segment has lost tens of thousands of jobs over the past five
or six years.

“In its six years of ownership, Tribune has damaged Newsday as an
instrument of public information and accountability and, for that
matter, as a business,” the letter said. The protest was organized by
the Guild union editorial workers.

Dean Baquet, who publicly spoke out against making repeated cuts in
the Los Angeles Times - reported here at “Mick’s Place” - was sacked
and is looking for work.

I think there are obvious signs of a drift from reality among the journalists and their self proclaimed “Fourth Estate.”