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Paper purchases such as those in Texas by Buffett group signal signs of hope

Newspapers have taken hits over the past decade. A combination of economic factors combined with the technological explosion including the Internet have shaken the foundations of the printed paper.The turmoil continues to this day what with Advance Publications leaving a good portion of the Gulf Coast without newspapers printed daily in New Orleans, Pascagoula, Miss., and Mobile, Ala.

Still, some signs suggest the ink-stained wretch may not be relegated to the past.

Economic stresses of one type or the other seemed to plague the newspaper industry for most of the 15 years I worked full-time for three papers. Well actually four as I was managing editor for an 8,000-circulation weekly but the fit was wrong and I quit after less than a month there so I don’t count it. One factor in particular affecting papers was the cost of newsprint which rose along with the cost of energy. Various other changes in the market, while not drastic, made its impact on the industry such as in classified advertising. When I first started working as a small-town weekly newspaper editor in 1990, the classified ad was quickly headed down a dark alley. The growth of Wal-Mart also made its mark on newspaper fortunes when its stores popped up, seemingly overnight, and drove smaller, established businesses — also newspaper advertisers — out of business.

Lo and behold came the Internet and rocked newspapers to the very core of the way they operated, in both the news and monetary end. The “pajama-clad” Internet commentator hailed the demise of the printed newspaper. The “citizen journalist” would now take over and save the world. Many editors and publishers foolishly believed the anonymous experts who said newspaper would become a relic of the past thanks to their beloved “Internets,” as one U.S. president used to call it.

But not so fast my PJ-attired friends. All is not as it seems. For instance, while his neighboring newspapers to the east and west — owned by the aforementioned Advance Publications and that are set to send many score of employees packing as well as cutting back on printed editions — The Sun Herald on the Mississippi Gulf Coast has its engines set at full speed ahead.

Glenn Nardi, president and publisher, of the Biloxi-based 47,000-daily/56,000-Sunday daily wants to see the paper grow through print, Web and phone.

 “To paraphrase Mark Twain: ‘Reports of print’s death are greatly exaggerated.’ In fact, the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the nonprofit organization created and supported by the advertising community to measure newspaper and magazine audiences, reports that newspaper paid circulation grew in the last audited six-month period.”

One of the five richest people on the planet also sees something worth putting his money where his mouth is when speaking of papers. Berkshire-Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett is purchasing newspapes left and right, no pun intended, seeing as how Buffett has been a major backer of President Obama. And some see Obama as left wing. Get it? Oh forget it. The one-time paper boy, Buffett, bought his hometown Omaha World-Herald and hasn’t stopped buying newspapers.
The Omaha World-Herald Co. subsidiary of Berkshire announced last week it has bought its second Texas newspaper, the Waco Tribune-Herald, after purchasing the Bryan-College Station paper, the Eagle. The company also announced today that it closed the deal on purchasing the 63 newspaper properties of Media General with its largest property The Tampa Tribune. A full-disclosure note, this blogger is closely connected to someone who spent almost a decade as a writer at the Waco newspaper. Since I am limited by a confidentiality agreement, I can’t say much more about the Waco Trib except it was and remains a very good daily paper. The Berkshire-Hathaway people are purchasing the Trib from Robinson Media, which bought the Trib from Atlanta-based Cox newspapers. Waco insurance magnate Clifton Robinson and his son, Gordon, bought their hometown paper three years ago but said they are convinced that it should be run by “media professionals.” The paper made news not long after the Robinsons took over the Trib when they put “In God We Trust” on the paper’s flag, the Page 1 newspaper name at the top. Perhaps that isn’t so far out since Waco is home to Baylor, the world’s largest Baptist university, which was also attended by both Robinsons. Buffett has said editorial decisions will be left with local newspapers such as editorial board choice of candidates.
Maybe Buffett, like the Waco family Robinson, just always wanted to own newspapers. But the “Omaha Oracle” isn’t too sloppy with his business acumen. Perhaps the purchases by Berkshire-Hathaway are a whim. But  I would imagine many who know business much better than I do would doubt it.
It will be interesting to see how a familiar paper turns out under the chairmanship of Warren Buffett. I hope for only good, as I think the purchases by Berkshire-Hathaway signal ahead.

 

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Ann Curry to get $10 million for leaving. Heck, I could leave for $5 million.

Every now and then I read Fox News stories on the Web but not that often. That is because if I wanted news served up by a right-wing propaganda outfit I would sign up for any number of sites dedicated to making this nation a much drearier place. With that said, I did find kind of an interesting story on the Fox Web that says NBC plans to pay Ann Curry $10 million to leave the “Today” show.

If I was Ann, which I’m not, I’d take the money and leave faster than the speed of sound, light and tachyons rolled up in one. That’d be pretty danged quick, main.*

Curry is a well-respected journalist although she hasn’t set the world on fire since taking over for Meredith Vieira about a year ago. The No. 1 network morning show has had falling ratings of late, reportedly, due to Curry lacking chemistry and the skills needed for the particular program. Others say, however, that the show is just “tired” and sometimes a bit too into itself.

Here I am, not even making ends meet and I am discussing the plight of the “Today” show and what its future holds. I know that we’re talking about Ann Curry leaving, but I too can leave with the best of them and I sure as hell could leave in a grand manner for $10 million or maybe half that. Curry may become a foreign correspondent for NBC after leaving the show. I would, as well, probably head for foreign lands if someone would give me $10 million. Some island-nation in the Caribbean or South Pacific sounds good although I’ve already been to Fiji and was not all that impressed.

I wish Curry the best. I probably would see more of her on TV were she a foreign correspondent instead of an anchor on “Today.” I’ve watched the show practically all my life, but it isn’t what I watch in the a.m. these days. Right now, I don’t have a favorite and switch back and forth through the Weather Channel, CNN, the CBS morning show, and Joe Scarborough. And while I might not be TV person and personality of Curry’s stature, I think I might give her a good run for her money in the area of leaving. Pay me $10 million and I was out of here yesterday.

 *The Southern drawl equivalent of “man” or Jamaican “mon.”
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Is the 2nd Amendment rooted in the right to play with guns?

Fewer and fewer stories are showing up on many news aggregators about the whole bodiddlelink over Attorney Gen. Eric Holder and Operation Fast and Furious. Actually, George W. Bush should be in that group since the so-called “gunwalking” operation first happened under that latter’s watch as POTUS. The above link goes to a piece by L.A. Times columnist/cartoonist Davide Horsey which wraps up the whole story very well, I think. So good is that synopsis that the whole shebang doesn’t deserve repetition. Not to mention that it makes me somewhat sad and even repulsed that the right wing propaganda machine has spun such a wild tale and have millions believing that it is true that the whole operation — which did I tell you it was started under GW? — was a vast Obama conspiracy to take away our guns?

You know, when you say “take away our guns,” as in “Obama wants to take away our guns” it sounds rather infantile in the first place.  They want to take away our guns and we can’t play with them. Well, isn’t that what most of us actually end  up doing with our guns, playing with them? Shot anybody lately? I’m not speaking about George Zimmerman and, yes, it happens quite regularly that people protect their lives but mostly their property and end up, shooting and killing someone. This article cites FBI and state statistics which show justifiable homicide almost doubled over the past decade but the number was only about 2 percent of the total killings over that time period.

Some of my friends and relatives won’t like the tone of what I am saying. I also am not saying it because I think our guns should be taken away. First of all, there is no way in hell that is going to happen unless we end up with a leader like Hitler. And Barack Obama, you’re not Hitler. I am just being kind of a devil’s advocate. We all talk about guns for self-defense. That’s why we can’t let nothing happen to our Second Amendment right, right? Well, that’s a fact, Jack. If that is what you believe. I’m just saying that as many or more would really not want our guns taken away because of our fondness for them as a collectible — like stamps or cars or baseball cards — or because we like to shoot skeet or beer cans or old couches or squirrels or deer or bears or elk with them.

Look deep down into your soul and be truthful. How many of you who worry about something happening to your “right” to bear arms are concerned because your really worry someone is going to try to attack you or your property? Now, how many of you — still telling the truth — would hate to see guns disappear because of all the fun activities you have had with them?

I bet there are some friends of mine who either dislike guns or have some problem with the debate over having guns in the U.S. also may not be happy with me as well.  It doesn’t matter. I am just trying to make a point here. I have had a lot of fun with guns. Yet, if I said “I have had a lot of fun ‘playing’ with guns” to some folks I might sound like some irresponsible lunatic.

But, I have had fun playing with guns. By that I mean shooting skeet. Shooting beer cans. Shooting watermelons. Target shooting. And yes, when I was much younger I hunted. Some of the best times of my life I had playing with guns. Heaven forbid, sometimes we were even drinking beer while we were doing this. I got a couple of “Magnum eyebrows” that way.  Real ne’er-do-wells we were in our reckless youth. All of this was done by someone who also came very close to being shot by accident as a toddler.

It’s complicated, the relationship Americans have with their guns. We also have a difficult time telling ourselves the truth about why we are passionate about firearms.

This whole “Fast and Furious” thing, yeah, it was stupid. It was as stupid as when the program was started under Shrub Bush. It is despicable, though, that the right and the propaganda artists at Fox, Limbaugh and elsewhere have weaved this into such a deceitful and absurd story.

I don’t know. I feel like I have gone nowhere with writing this. It’s sort of symbolic of the whole story.

Shoot!

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Fun fact. Watch me ramble. Learn my likes and dislikes. Shoot me out of a cannon into outer space!

¿Le voten por mí, por favor?  Please? Pretty please, with azúcar  on top?

El Presidente and the Guv’nor are courting the Latino as if their lives depended on it. Well, I suppose their political lives depend on it. Not so much heard today about the House panel vote just yesterday on a contempt of Congress charge for Attorney Gen. Eric Holder. “You’re up one day and then you’re down,” as that great Americana poet songster John Prine says. Something the GOPers seem to be finding out on a regular basis. Dems too.

But it is true. That isn’t even my point although I think Rachel Maddow did a spectacular job last night showing the craziness of the right and pretty much the Republican mainstream in office. Apparently the right has been playing this “Fast and Furious” thing up as a big Obama conspiracy to take away the citizenry’s guns. That’s right! Sell guns illegally to take everybody’s .22, .410, Glock and bazooka away. It is amazingly … lame. I am a firm believer in the public’s right to have a gun. I, have, well, had one. I hocked it to a friend and I hope he still has it. It’s a Remington .870 pump shotgun.

Nevertheless, I am at the point where I think Wayne LaPierre and the rest of the NRA leadership are insane. I mean just totally batsroom crazy! Guns don’t kill people, lobbyists kill people!

Actually, I was going to satirize those little “Bio Boxes” that have been so popularly used by newspapers over the past decade or so. Perhaps more than that. I saw this one from the Associated Press on the Washington Post Website about Rob Portman. He is the Ohio Republican senator who is supposedly on the “short list” as a Romney veep pick. I only know a little about him and the bio box referenced really doesn’t do a super job in telling me who the wannabe Romney-Portman ticket No. 2 really is.

I once worked at a small newspaper where we did something similar to a bio box. Monday being a slow news day, especially at what was then an afternoon paper, we shined the spotlight on someone in our fair town worth noting while filling up a big ol’ news hole to boot. We asked questions like what books were they reading, their favorite TV show and the like. We also asked the question if you had a dream dinner, who were four people would you invite and what would you have to eat? That question always struck me as particularly funny for some reason even though I don’t think most people would find it unreasonable to ask.

Since I used to crack jokes about the four people and dinner, a colleague asked me the question “who were four I would invite” for a very flattering column she wrote about me upon my departure at the paper. My answer to the question about the four I would invite was “Myself and a three-way mirror.” Well, she didn’t ask who were the four people  I would invite.  I guess you had to be there. Anyway, it was sweet what Beth wrote about me and I’ll always appreciate it.

And now without further a do-do, here is my bio box just so you all will get to know me better. Hahahahaha!

NAME: Puddintain. Just kidding, Eight Feet Deep.

AGE: 56, in dog years.

PLACE OF BIRTH: In a hospital, in a galaxy far, far away.

EDUCATION: B.A., Stephen F. Austin State University. Home of “Surfin’ Steve.”

EXPERIENCE: Yes, I am experienced. I also have been experienced. I have experience too.

ON THE NIGHTSTAND: A CPAP mask for my sleep apnea. A secure hotline to the Kremlin.

RECENT MOVIES I’VE SEEN: “Fort Apache.” I stayed up way too late one night last week watching this on TCM.

MUSIC: Dude! Americana-Country: John Prine, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Hank Williams Sr., Dr. Hook, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones. Rock: Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Allman Brothers, Led Zepplin, Cracker, Coldplay; Blues-Soul: Freddy King, Chuck Willis, Sam and Dave, Al Green, Taj Mahal. Swamp Pop-Zydeco-Cajun, The Boogie Kings, Jivin’ Gene,  Jerry LaCroix,  Wayne Toups, Marcia Ball and on and on and freakin’ on.

HOBBIES: Hiking, until I developed back problems and now can’t walk for more than 10 minutes. Biking. I need to fix my flat. Camping. Building ships in a bottle that are able to blast their way out and kick some seafaring ass! Just kidding.

FUN FACT: One time, at a party at my house when I was in college, we once burned my couch on a bonfire. But that was not before we spent all day shooting it with all manner of guns. Each time we would shoot, we would yell: “This is what you get for f***ing my wife!” We, thus, learned that if you were having an affair, don’t ever hide behind the couch!

 

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Slow and dull: Panel sends Holder contempt forward

The Witches of Washington. You’d think a load of them were found on the Capitol steps. That is because a giant witch hunt is in high gear as a congressional committee voted along party lines a short while ago to order to the full House a contempt charge against the attorney general.

The whole charge, pushed by zealous Republican Rep. Daniel Issa of California, stems from a botched arms investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious. It certainly isn’t the first time the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives flubbed a probe. But this one happened on AG Eric Holder’s — read Obama’s — watch.

If the congressional panel was to actually engage in seeking something from the “Reform” portion of its name, I might be a bit more inclined to give the House inquiry a break. But it’s all about the president — always has, always been.

When the Republicans took charge of the House with the Democrats maintaining the narrowest of majorities in the Senate, the writing was on the wall. The House was going to investigate, investigate, investigate. It was destiny. Just as in law, which is from where many of the clueless — a.k.a. lawmakers — are derived, congressional types want to get a meaty cause. They then study it as if it was a being from Mars. Then they beat that cause with a stick in the general public, or in the Republican’s case, Fox News. Then, some blowhard demagogue wrests away the case as his own and becomes the crusading congressman with all the bearing of a Batman but, thankfully, without a tight-fitting body suit.

Of course, the possible contempt charge has hinged all along on the president’s use of executive privilege — a qualified privilege in which the executive branch can claim the power to resist certain subpoenas and other major pains in the ass which the legislative and judicial branches might see fit to throw the president’s way. Okay, long sentence there, sorry. But hopefully you score the quintessence.

This is Obama’s first rodeo when it comes to executive privilege but such an assertion is hardly unheard of in our history. Here’s a tote board of presidents using the big EP during the last 40 or so years:

President George W. Bush: 6

President Bill Clinton: 14

President George H.W. Bush: 1

President Ronald Reagan: 3

President Jimmy Carter: 1

President Gerald Ford: 1

President Richard Nixon: 6

President Lyndon Johnson: 0

President John F. Kennedy: 2

The full House may vote on this contempt charge next week unless a deal is struck. Then, who knows? It might go to court and remain unresolved until after the election. This political theater by Issa and his cronies could have been avoided. But why would they do that? Anything, any method, anyway to hurt the President. Does the GOP care the world around them goes to Hell? Hell No, that’s what they want. I swear the Republicans should have chose the jackass as its symbol.