Friday, May 11, 2007
STUPID AND SUICIDAL
US ABC News analyst Michael S. Malone:
The most heated topic in the blogosphere this week was the announcement by James Lileks, one of the world’s most popular bloggers, that his longtime employer, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, was taking away his print column and putting him back on the reporting beat.
This announcement, which first appeared late Monday night in Lileks’ column, initially drew shocked disbelief, then an explosion of anger — mostly in the form of letters to Lileks in support (including one from me) and to the Star-Tribune in righteous fury. On his radio show, Hugh Hewitt devoted a couple hours of precious airtime to the news ... Even Dave Barry waded in to shake his head at the sheer stupidity of newspapers these days ...
To rip that platform out from underneath its single most important asset now makes the “Strib” the poster child for the astonishingly stupid and suicidal decisions made by newspapers in the 21st century.
That’s a close call; does the Strib beat Melbourne’s Sunday Age?