Would you rather know alot about nothing or a little about everything?

"I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers. After that vigorous definition, the subject will be, if i may say so, exhuasted" Albert Camus, The Fall

If only that were still true today.

In the preceding months, no make that years, the newspaper industry, like its auditory brother the radio in the 1980's, has rapidly fallen victim to a decreasing audience and as a result many large newspapers and magazines are filing for bankruptcy. The micro-effects of this are devestating to say the least; with almost every municipality (be it a town, city or country) operating some form of print journalism, thousands of writers, editors, photographers and staffers will be forced out the field that they loved, thus depriving them of a means to support themselves, and their families, but more importantly (maybe im selfish) a means towards self actualization and intellectual growth.

Being the son of a man who made a living writing our news I was told of a profession, though monetarily not very appealing, that brought together smart, motivated and passionate individuals who loved what they did. These people are (or with the current state of things, were) not motivated by financial incentives but rather a noble purpose; on the individual side to know, as the title of this blog suggets, a little about everything as opposed to alot about nothing, and on the societal side, to provide for an educated citizenry that could stay in tune with the world while hunched over scrambled eggs and coffee/tea/whisky. Unfortunately in recent months thousands of newspapers and magazines are comming to the chaper in the book of life that makes any professional cringe, chapter 11 bankruptcy and if societal interests stay the course they are now, will soon be put out of business.

Notice the highlight on the word professional; while by contemporary standards newspapermen are not professionals (it does not take years of graduate schooling to be a journalist, nor intense written tests or licensing exams) what defines a professional is the role that they play in society; to provide a service to people and help them. I will examine this role in two parts; the utility of a free and effective press to the functioning of a democratic government and the individual and societal benefits that accompany such publications.

In 1965 then Supreme Court Justice Tom Clarke said of the press, "[they are] a mighty catalyst in awakening public interest in governmental affairs, exposing corruption among public officers and employees and generally informing the citizenry of public events and occurrences . . . .".

In contemporary America it seems that people have lost site of this value and necessity of the press and it is worrysome. One need not look back more than 40 years to see the first glaring example of the utility and necessity of a free press; in 1971 Daniel Elsburg, a then pentagon security analyst, got his hands on some dirty paperwork that proved that the Nixon administration was flat out lying to the American people about the sucess of the war in Vietnam. This in itself shows why the press was so important; our government, run with the consent of the governed, was lying to the public about a cause that pulled young men, some sons, others fathers, brothers from their homes and families and sent them of to die, furthermore for a government that lied to them.

But maybe I'm being pessimistic, after all that is a 'sunk cost' (to use an economic term, its already happened so what use is it now). Lets look at a contemporary example; where did the millions upon millions of people that voted for Barack Obama get their information? Where did they learn about his amazing story thus compelling them to invest time, energy and money into a cause that they believed in? THE PRESS.

(I will briefly go on a tangent unrelated to the current example but I feel compelled to address.) But whats that you say, we still support the press, we read Entertainment Weekly and US magazine. These people are not real journalists! They are the worst type of people in their profession; they are the ambulance chasing lawyers of the legal profession and anybody who buys/speaks well/reads this is wasting their time. The real press, the people that we should be putting our hard earned money towards (at least what is left after taxes), are the newspaper and (news) magazine industries.

Here I see a flaw in my argument, and I will readily admit it; we do 'support' the press by watching Don Lemon, Keith Olberman, or Bill O'Rielly (to name one anchor from each big station), but what is the backbone of these people? These singular individuals who seem to the average person to know everything? The men and women of the newspaper and magazine industries who go out and find those funny quirky stories, like the boy who got charged with meowing at his neighbor that make us laugh and smile when we watch the news, and it is members of the press that find out the 'big' stuff, like Acorn, Bernie Madoff, and the like. That a bit to much to wrap your head around? How about this, what would a movie be like without all the producers, cameramen, cosmotologists (I know the best one), extras, the people who make the final product possible. They would not be squat! Watching television isn't enough everyone, read something once in a while, buy a newspaper or a magazine and indirectly thank the people who allow you to jump on your political bandwaggon and form your biases against anybody red when your blue, or blue when your red.

These people keep you informed! Not your textbooks in class, not your television shows that you watch in the last vestiges of your day when your mind is numb to the outside world, not even your parents! The newspapers and magazines do. Maybe my argument is dubious; I advocate for the press but as said earlier the 'press' that we support are those anchors on television, not the people who really make it possible; the print journalists in small and big towns/cities across America. Even if you are a person that keeps informed by reading the news online, realize that this is a shrinking industry; the internet makes it possible for few people to get information across to sucessively larger and larger networks. But as said earlier these industries get their information from INDIVIDUALS, the news does not appear out of thin air, no, it is created (though not out of thin air) by men and women working for newspapers in their municipalities. If we continue to get all of our news from the internet and television we are withering away the keystone to our information artilery.

And so I get to my point; you dont know what you have until you loose it. With all these newspapers and magazines going out of business the backbone of our democratic and intellectual lives is being weakened. PLEASE PEOPLE GO OUT AND BUY A NEWSPAPER OR A MAGAZINE. Walk down any street in your town in a commercial district and notice the little steel boxes with small black recepticles that only ask for a mere 50 cents or a dollar and in turn support the livelihood of not only the journalists that work for these companies but support the intellectual and informed citizenry, hell once you pay you can take as many papers as you want! Give one to a friend, family member or significant other! Its a win-win situation!

In my next post I will address the political and social apathy that plagues our country and though i won't address it again, leads to the very problem talked about here.

Thanks for reading,
Dominic Contreras