all the news that's fit to print

 

In 1897, Adolph S. Ochs, the owner of The New York Times, created the famous slogan "All the News That's Fit to Print," which still appears on the masthead of the newspaper today. He wrote the slogan as a declaration of the newspaper's intention to report the news impartially.

I’ll have to admit that the New York Times is my favorite newspaper, in large part due to the fact that it has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper.

However, I also have paid subscriptions to the Washington Post (69 Pulitzers). The Boston Globe (26 Pulitzers), and the Arizona Republic (12 Pulitzers). In addition, I also read the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and the National Catholic Reporter on a daily basis. Occasionally, I’ll also read Al Jazeera, the Tucson Daily Star, and the Chicago Tribune.

One of my favorite memories as a kid was laying on the floor in the living room, and reading the comics in the St. Paul Dispatch. Years later, I actually wound up working for the St. Paul Dispatch on Saturday nights, assembling the Sunday newspaper. I also was instrumently in helping my brothers-in-law, and one of my co-workers to join me.

 I just finished reading “Defense Attorney”, by James Patterson. Apart from the main character (Barry Slotnick), another important person in the “telling of the tale” is a reporter for the New York Daily News named Jimmy Breslin.

Breslin worked for the New York Daily News for a number of years, but he also wrote columns for several other New York papers. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Commentary "for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Breslin

In my early adult years, I frequently read Jim Klobuchar’s columns in the Star Tribune. Despite his struggles with alcoholism, he managed to live to be 93 years old – and he is also the father of Senator Amy Klobuchar.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Klobuchar

 We lived in the Chicago area for more than 25 years, which led me to become a fan of Mike Royko.

Over his 30-year career, he wrote over 7,500 daily columns for the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Chicago Tribune. A humorist who focused on life in Chicago, he was the winner of the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

Royko married Carol Duckman in 1954, and they had two sons, David and Robert. She suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died on September 19, 1979, Royko's 47th birthday. He later described that time as "a period of disintegration. The only column he wrote during that period was a short note to readers on October 5, 1979, in which Royko wrote, "We met when she was 6 and I was 9. Same neighborhood street. Same grammar school. So, if you ever have a 9-year-old son who says he is in love, don't laugh at him. It can happen. That column ended with a much-remembered line: "If there's someone you love but haven't said so in a while, say it now. Always, always, say it now.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Royko

After we moved to Arizona, I started a subscription to the Arizona Republic. Although I read most of the columnists on a regular basis, E.J. Montini is the guy with the most longevity. I have also discovered that the columnists will respond to you directly if you write to them.

 It’s no secret that newspaper circulation numbers have gone down. In fact, they are now at the lowest levels since 1940. The ones that have prospered have resorted to digital subscriptions to boost their bottom line. The New York Times, in fact, gets more revenue from its digital subscriptions than from its print editions.

 https://letter.ly/newspaper-statistics/

 Apart from the fact that vulture capitalists like Alden Global Capital (which now owns more than 200 newspapers) have decimated newspaper staffs throughout the country, newspaper readership has declined due to the rapid expansion of cable news and social media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alden_Global_Capital

To quote Abraham Lincoln, don’t believe everything that you read on the internet.

Traditional television and radio outlets (commonly known as mainstream media) have strict controls on what can be said on air. The editorial boards of “mainstream” newspapers also have strict controls over what is printed.

Social media companies also have controls on what is posted online, but are limited in how much they can control. Facebook and Twitter can restrict or ban certain individuals who are posting mid-information – but that is not always done.

Spotify paid Joe Rogan $100 million to be his exclusive sponsor, but his broadcast of mid-leading COVID information led to a response from other musical artists (like Neil Young) rather than the company itself.

When Roger Ailes founded the FOX network in 1996, he called it an “entertainment” channel, rather than a news channel. As a result, much of that is broadcast on the channel cannot be taken as fact. When Tucker Carlson was recently sued for defamation, his lawyers argued that the 'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.' "

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye

Since its founding more than 25 years ago, FOX has only earned ONE Emmy award. Its competitors have earned MANY more. For example, in 2018, CNN earned three Emmys, CNN International for three, NBC got two, the New York Times got two, MSNBC got one, ABC got one – and NPR earned SEVEN.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-fox-news-emmys-obama-1149922#:~:text=While%20Fox%20News%20won%20no%20awards%20for%202018%2C,PBS%20took%20the%20biggest%20haul%2C%20with%20seven%20Emmys.

 

We watch Rachel Maddow whenever she is on the air because she is well informed – and funny.

In the first quarter of 2021, she was the most watched on-air personality on cable news, with 3.606 million viewers.

Three months later, the most-watched host was Tucker Carlson, who had an average audience of 2.8 million viewers. This is the guy, remember, whose attorneys said that nothing that he said could be taken as fact.

 I’ve strayed a bit from my opening comments about newspaper columnists, but one common thread of the 4 guys that I mentioned earlier is that they all were hard-nosed reporters who focused on FACTS. They were not afraid to take on corrupt politicians or mobsters. On rare occasions, though, they would print human interest stories that could bring you to tears.

One example of this is Mike Royko's column of November 22, 1979, which was published shortly after his wife died. 

http://michaelsherwood.com/RoykoNovember.html

Unlike most Americans, I don’t watch a lot of television, but I will ALWAYS read newspapers.