Don't Blame MSM For Gloom and Doom

If you wonder why the mainstream media isn’t shooting off the fireworks about a record close above 12,000 on the Dow, you probably think that it is all about Bush hatred.

But Dean Barnett reminds us that there is another good reason.

For most Americans who work in most industries, the economy is chugging along quite nicely, thank you very much. But if you happen to work at a legacy media outpost, the good ship prosperity has left the harbor without you. Newsrooms across America are cutting staff and not giving raises. Circulation numbers (and ratings) continue to decline with no floor yet in sight. It’s understandable enough that if you work in the media, even if you happen not to be a raging-leftist-borderline-socialist, you’re probably having trouble perceiving that the rest of the country is enjoying prosperous times.

Like they say: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose your job.

Jeff Jacoby, he relates, thinks that the legacy media

powers that be in their clumsy efforts to fix things resemble a group of ink-stained Herbert Hoovers.

Take the example of The New York Times.

The product the New York Times gives away for free on the web is actually superior to the dead tree version you have to lay out your hard earned cash to purchase; the virtual edition is updated with headlines throughout the day and the maniacal rantings of Paul Krugman and company are kept safely behind a subscription-only firewall.

Thank goodness for that. And, of course, just yesterday The New York Times reported 39 percent lower profits.

As if on cue, a bunch of Democratic pols led by Sen Edward Kennedy (D-MA), wrote to the publisher of the New York Times Co. urging him to “resist pressures to cut staff and other resources” at the ailing Boston Globe.

Meanwhile Google announced record profits and its stock soared into the stratosphere.

The times they are a-changing.