Newsroom layoffs stifle US journalism-lobbying group (MoveOn)

[UpInArms]

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-12-07T224336Z_01_N07269285_RTRIDST_0_MEDIA-MOVEON.XML

NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Political lobbying group MoveOn, best known for efforts to unseat U.S. President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, protested job cuts in American newsrooms on Wednesday, saying it would stifle good journalism.

At a media conference in New York, the group delivered a petition with 45,000 signatures to executives of newspaper publisher Tribune Co.(TRB.N: Quote, Profile, Research), objecting to the company's layoffs of more than 800 newspaper workers, which will likely include reporters.

Tribune Co.'s papers include the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

"We're concerned about the ability of newspapers to report news. Good watchdog journalism costs money, but it's what communities rely on newspapers for," Noah Winer, media action director at MoveOn, told Reuters.

U.S. newspaper circulation has been in decline since 1984, according to the Newspaper Association of America, hurt by competition with the Internet and cable TV news and rising distrust of a media dogged by reporting scandals in recent years.

<snip>

Josh Douglass, a lifelong reader of Tribune Co.'s Newsday, said layoffs at the Long Island, New York-based newspaper could prevent political scandals from coming to light.

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[bemildred]

1. Don't need reporters, just reprinting handouts from corporations and the

White House anyway these days. Think of all the money they'll save on salaries and benefits. Productivity will soar. :sarcasm:

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Despite its shortcomings, I'm a fierce advocate of the print press.

Mr. Douglass, who is quoted, is right. Without the print press, there is a heck of a lot that would would never see the light of day. Evidence for this can be seen every day in LBN.

[madrchsod]

3. i agree with you on this

but free press is only for the owner of the press and who owns the presses? one of the reasons we see stuff is our access to overseas newspapers,websites,and blogs. back in my day to find a overseas newspapers i`d have to go to a major metro area university or bookstore,now they are just a click away. google is an entire reference library that only a few years ago was only a dream. don`t get me wrong i don`t want print to ever go away because of many different reasons but for me it`s taking a book off my self that`s dated 1878 and look at pictures , drawings, and read about the world as they saw it.they`ll never get my books!

[electricray]

4. If you ask me, this is a blessing in disguise

To me 800 reporters with no allegiance might actually get to do some reporting. There are plenty of venues for good pieces cropping up. Independent World Television is going to be huge, maybe these reporters can find a home if they are worth their salt. If they are not worth their salt, my sympathies for their struggles, but crappy reporters need to go the way of the dodo anyway. It does suck that this is happening around the holid-, er, seaso-, er, Christmachanausolstikwanza (fuck you Bill O'Rielly).

(PS: Just to nip it in the bud it is a conjunction of Christmas, Chanukah, (Winter)Solstice, and Kwanza.)

[Blue_Tires]

5. ttt

I'm a journalist, and the job market has been shit for a few years now (been out of work since march)....Even with sporadic experience here and there, in the past 4 and a half years, I've been unemployed (in journalism) almost as much time as i've been employed...which is why i'm planning a career change

[anitar1]

6. I remember when the majors gutted the budget

a few years back. Instead they relied on "picking up" news from other sources. I think many journalists lost their jobs then. It was the beginning of what we see now. No longer any U.S. foreign based news bureaus. Owners thought it was a waste of money.