I put this together to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. It is actually a short version of my first full length doc. "NewsClips from the Iraq War" which I released on 1st anniversary. All the clips are from the first few weeks of this second longest war in U.S. history.
We must remember our history or repeat it.
Enjoy
Friday, March 20, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Newspaper Death Spiral
I gave up my decades long subscription to the L.A. Times when they fired Robert Scheer November 2005. After that I bought it only occasionally from newsstands or street boxes. Most often I would do this when I had breakfast at McDonalds. Breakfast at McDonalds would give me more than coffee and a sugar roll AND change back from a $5 bill. Two quarters would usually buy a L.A. Times from the box outside to be read over breakfast. When I was regularly going into the office I did this at least once or twice a week. Since I had to close the office, trips to McDonalds are much fewer.
I stopped for breakfast at McDonalds on Lincoln a few weeks ago and I guess I hadn’t been there in a while. You don’t get as much change back from a $5 bill. Fortunately I had my own two quarters!
But when I went outside the McDonalds to buy a newspaper, I found that the box was missing. Gone! I stood where it had stood for years. I could see rush patterns in the sidewalk and the ripped out bolts that testified to its former existence, but it was gone. Undaunted, I spied what appeared to be a L.A. Times box about a block away and headed out for it. When I got to it, I found that it was indeed a L.A. Times box but it was empty. Which was just as well because it now take 3 quarters to open it for a daily and I only had 2.
That’s when the news hit me that the L.A. Times was going down the tubes in a death spiral but fast. At a time when people have less money to spend, they are playing a reverse trifecta. They are making the paper harder to find, more expensive to buy, and thinner. Since they fire Robert Scheer, a lot thinner.
I stopped for breakfast at McDonalds on Lincoln a few weeks ago and I guess I hadn’t been there in a while. You don’t get as much change back from a $5 bill. Fortunately I had my own two quarters!
But when I went outside the McDonalds to buy a newspaper, I found that the box was missing. Gone! I stood where it had stood for years. I could see rush patterns in the sidewalk and the ripped out bolts that testified to its former existence, but it was gone. Undaunted, I spied what appeared to be a L.A. Times box about a block away and headed out for it. When I got to it, I found that it was indeed a L.A. Times box but it was empty. Which was just as well because it now take 3 quarters to open it for a daily and I only had 2.
That’s when the news hit me that the L.A. Times was going down the tubes in a death spiral but fast. At a time when people have less money to spend, they are playing a reverse trifecta. They are making the paper harder to find, more expensive to buy, and thinner. Since they fire Robert Scheer, a lot thinner.
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