tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583274002388670284.post3047386958051213596..comments2012-11-04T18:14:56.277-08:00Comments on Unstoppable Force, Immovable Object: Do You Believe Everything You Read in Sketchy Online Publications?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377750317384479713noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583274002388670284.post-1203673439227007852012-01-24T16:07:09.364-08:002012-01-24T16:07:09.364-08:00Lovely to see you in the comments, by the by.Lovely to see you in the comments, by the by.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06377750317384479713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583274002388670284.post-14603140963928712712012-01-24T16:06:31.513-08:002012-01-24T16:06:31.513-08:00Oh, Pat, I have thrown up my hands on the subject ...Oh, Pat, I have thrown up my hands on the subject of the Press Herald. If the new (now previous, yes?) owner was honest, he'd acknowledge that he rebuilt readership on the corpse of reportage: people buy that paper because their child or hamster is next to the weather report, their photo is in one of the myriad "society" type spreads, and a disproportional number of above-the-fold headlines are vomit-inducing puns about a human-interest photo with an extended cap. Lewiston and Bangor do crazy things like write their own stories on local topics instead of buying the first two paragraphs of the AP wire on it. Too harsh? I dunno...I'm a touch cynical on this subject.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06377750317384479713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583274002388670284.post-46976842650304146692012-01-23T19:05:43.271-08:002012-01-23T19:05:43.271-08:00Hey! I didn't know you were a journalist! I wa...Hey! I didn't know you were a journalist! I was a journalist too! Well said. Are you watching the Lewiston and Bangor papers kick the butt of the Press Herald these days?Pat Washburn, former neighborhttp://www.eunicepomfret.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583274002388670284.post-23827532430783103082011-12-11T19:44:44.290-08:002011-12-11T19:44:44.290-08:00You are correct sir. Duly noted and corrected. I...You are correct sir. Duly noted and corrected. I do believe I somehow managed to learn the term "fourth estate" (ha! not very well, apparently) as a nickname for "the press" without ever being introduced to how it came to be. Thank you for spackling the hole in my education!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06377750317384479713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583274002388670284.post-68552163318220120842011-12-11T07:11:56.084-08:002011-12-11T07:11:56.084-08:00Pardon me for missing this post until just now, bu...Pardon me for missing this post until just now, but allow me to extend my wholehearted endorsement of your thesis, especially the part about how we consumers are responsible to vet our sources ourselves. I have a theory our innate "bullshit detectors," normally acute, have atrophied after nearly two generations of exposure to countless hours of "commercial speak" on the radio and TV. The ability we've developed to process endless dishonest sales pitches on TV (i.e. to ignore them) hampers our ability to filter the truth from fiction (or PR) in our news sources. Every scrap of information that reaches us on the internet has a provenance, and I believe we need to learn to understand and analyze those sources.<br /><br />So, yeah! What you said. I agree with you. And I think the press is the Fourth Estate, not the Fifth. The other three are Royalty, Church, and Merchants. (If I remember my 8th grade world history class correctly). Of course that "fourth estate" status was defined by a journalist.A Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218596616161358349noreply@blogger.com