ANOTHER NEWSPAPER BITES THE DUST

From the Washington Post, ”Arizona's oldest continuously published daily newspaper, the 138-year-old Tucson Citizen, will publish its final print edition today after its owner failed to find a buyer.”

In the same edition, Bruce W. Sanford and Bruce D. Brown argue that “[u]nless Congress embarks on far-reaching change in public policy to maintain the viability of journalism as it evolves online, we will soon find ourselves with the remnants of a broken industry incapable of providing the knowledge necessary to manage life in a complex world.”

Um, guys, ever hear of that thing called the internet? Al Gore invented it, you know.

Sarcasm aside, I have a hard time believing that if newspapers go away, you and I will be unable “to manage life in a complex world.” I also have a hard time believing that newspapers are going to go away.

Be that as it may, Sanford and Brown argue that in order to survive, newspapers need regulatory reform “to adopt a new business model.” I can agree with that, provided reform means less regulation, not more.

But some of their proposals strike me as just plain silly, or worse, counterproductive.

Enforce copyright infringement on search engines? I would think that the newspaper would want the widest possible distribution in order to sell web page advertising.

Federalize the “hot news” doctrine? That strikes me as a double-edged sword, since there are already cases in the blogosphere of newspapers stealing from bloggers.

Use tax policy to promote the press? Oh, come on. The legacy media, the ones who are going down, are already government lapdogs, which pretty well explains why they are going down. And Sanford and Brown want to make newspapers even more beholden to the government?

HIS HIGHNESS, THE MAYOR

Another case of rules are for little people.

There is a certain haughtiness in [Washington DC Mayor Adrian] Fenty's bearing, a trace of scorn in his demeanor, a sense of self-importance that was not present (or at least was not noticeable) in him before.

The word that comes to mind, and which frequently slips out of the mouths of people who spend time observing the mayor, is "arrogance."

And in today’s (radio) news, Mayor Fenty is off to Las Vegas without so much as a “by your leave” to the citizens of DC.

DOING PENANCE

Victor Davis Hansen:

[T]he problem is not that we all can change our minds as events change, or that acts sometimes are at odds with words. Rather the rub is the vehemence in which views are expressed-and for some, the propensity to slur and slander others, and the readiness even to call for criminal penalties. Once that extremism, fueled by self-righteousness, begins, we rightly suspect the virulence comes not just from the issue in question, but rather from some deep psychological desire for penance, to expiate one’s own past sins by finding their new counterparts in others.

Read it all.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM? ON PBS?

PBS stations are debating the limits of one of public television's basic commandments: thou shalt not broadcast religious programming.

Surely you jest.

Under bylaws enacted in 1985, PBS stations are required to present programs that are noncommercial, nonpartisan and nonsectarian. The rules were put in place to ensure balance and fairness among PBS-affiliated stations, which rely on government funding, private-sector grants and sponsorships, and contributions from viewers.

Noncommercial? “This program was paid for by ABC MegaCorp, producers of wonderful things like ....” is noncommercial

Nonpartisan? Oh, dear, where to begin?

Nonsectarian? Gaia worship is nonsectarian?

Let’s put it this way: PBS should be weaned from the government teat and required to “adopt a new business model.”

IMPROVING HEALTH CARE

David Brooks has a fascinating piece on health care that says absolutely nothing. The bottom line?

“There are deep structural forces, both in Medicare and the private insurance market, that have driven the explosion in health costs.”

OK, so what are these “deep structural forces?” After consulting with experts, he (and the Obama administration) have no answer. But no matter.

The solution is:

- improving health information technology,
- expanding wellness programs,
- expanding preventive medicine,
- penalizing hospitals for poor outcomes
- instituting comparative effectiveness measures

Those of us who are engineers generally try to understand the “deep structural forces” before designing a solution.

LIVE FREE

By Mark Steyn, adapted from a lecture at Hillsdale College.

My book America Alone is often assumed to be about radical Islam, firebreathing imams, the excitable young men jumping up and down in the street doing the old "Death to the Great Satan" dance.

It's not. It's about us.

Worthy of a full read.

MISSING THE PEOPLE’S WEEKLY BRIEF

One of the better commentaries at Fox News has gone MIA. Here’s the last one I could find.

[O]one of the interns asked if I thought it was morally okay to be happy that the senior Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh had just been blown up in a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.

Time for an answer.

[E]very human life starts out as precious; something to be treasured, valued and treated with dignity and respect.

But then some of those lives veer off track, becoming murderers, pedophiles or in Mughniyeh’s case, a butchering terrorist with the blood of several hundred innocent people on his hands. At the point where these individuals choose to carry out heinous acts, they opt out of civilization and all those lofty, righteous ideals regarding the treatment of human life

That’s the point where I no longer feel a moral obligation to worry about how they are treated. If you choose to become a terrorist, I choose to view you as less than human..

Mike Baker needs to return.