The publishers know that the Sports, Comics, Want Ads, Entertainment, and Home & Garden sections sell the paper. They know that few people read more than the headlines on the front page and that far fewer still bother with any of the other national or international news. They would read local news but the journalists have determined that local news is not important enough to be included in the paper.

The biggest problem lies with the types of people who now become journalists. If you ask them why they choose the profession an exceedingly large percentage would reply “I want to make a difference”. Ponder for a moment how you make a difference by standing around watching other people and then telling those not present what happened. There are precious few instances each decade that qualify as life-altering; the rest are just mundane, run of the mill everyday events and there’s no “difference making” to be had. So everything is a crisis, a disaster waiting to happen, and doom is shortly followed by a forecast for gloom with Women and Minorities being the hardest hit. What the wannabe journalists are really saying is “I want people to listen to ME! I’m important!!”. If they really wanted to “make a difference” then they could be a greeter at Wal-Mart and brighten people’s day, they could be teachers, policemen, firemen, doctors, lawyers, carpenters, plumbers, or find employment in any other profession.

Instead we get the ego. Journalists tell us what news is important. They fill the front page, the international and national sections with the news that they think should be important (and if it happened in Europe then by golly it IS important!) and all local news that might be of interest to the reader is omitted. Nobody needs to know what happened in Podunkville because it’s just not important in the grand scheme of things. Unless, of course, you live in Podunkville, plan to live in Podunkville the rest of your life, and know that the vast majority of what happens outside of Podunkville just doesn’t impact your life.

The news media is the only “business” that consistently tells its consumers that they are stupid, idiotic morons who don’t have a clue about anything. They consistently refuse to provide the product that the consumer wants and, yet, are strangely mystified by their declining revenue streams. I bet they just need to yell “Global Warming” louder, that’s sure to get everybody’s attention. And, you know, I think that’s the answer… the decline in the circulation numbers for The New York Times was caused by Global Warming…