After an unusual past few days, I expect to resume regular blogging this week and have much to blog about. For some reason, I haven’t had much energy to write lately, but feel the literary juices slowly returning. Even my journal entries were scant and I let e-mail pile up instead of responding to it. But, I did watch a few movies, including the tacky but fun “CLASH OF THE TITANS” (which butchers the Perseus-myth) the touching documentary, “HIDING AND SEEKING” (which I highly recommend) and (for the first time in my life) “BAMBI.” And I watched an NBC NEWS’ DVD on the Gipper.
It may have been the sweet remembrance of the Gipper — and his stirring words (the DVD included three of his speeches (in their entirety) and excerpts of others) that got those juices flowing again — or it may have been my visit to Barnes & Noble where I picked up a copy of Brian Anderson’s “SOUTH PARK CONSERVATIVES.” (I wish that I had not purchased the book there as I learned in linking it that I could have saved a few bucks by buying it online. Alas, that I have already written in the book.)
That book reminded me on an article which kept popping up when I read some of the blogs this weekend, the first being on Jeff Jarvis’ Buzz Machine which I got to via Instapundit (who incidentally agrees with the heart of my post, Connecticut in Context.)
Jarvis links to an excellent piece by George Will on declining newspaper circulation. Jarvis thinks we’re at a “tipping point” in media. He has blogged on this earlier (here and here).
Will notes that while the “young are voracious consumers of media, but not of journalism.” When I first read his piece, I realized I had left (and not for the first time) my “LA Times” at the foot of my stairs outside.
I’m not alone in ignoring the LA Times. Editor and Publisher reports that the paper’s circulation has declined another 5.5%. Hat tip: Point Five Step.
I highly recommend Will’s column and am delighted that he makes a point similar to one I had made nearly three months ago. Reviewing Hugh Hewitt‘s book, “BLOG: UNDERSTANDING THE INFORMATION REFORMATION THAT’S CHANGING YOUR WORLD,” I wrote: If it weren’t for the blogs, John Kerry would be president today. Yesterday, Will wrote: “If that had been the broadcast marketplace in 2004, John Kerry would be president.” That broadcast marketplace to which Will refers was back in 1968 when “80 percent of television sets in use at the dinner hour were tuned to one of the three network newscasts, and [then-CBS NEWS Anchor Walter] Cronkite had the largest share.”
Both Will’s column and Anderson’s book address this changing media marketplace. And if the entire Anderson book is as good as its first few pages, I will recommend it as highly as I do Will’s column and expect it to provide material for a future blog.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
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