Saturday, November 24, 2007

Seattle's P-I Goes Off Meds, Pushes Impeachment

No one ever accused Seattle's Post-Intelligencer of being the brightest bulb in its industry's dimming chandelier, but this is pretty dumb even for them.

Why a newspaper would devote space for a cartoon and 1,350 words of hysterical rant from a self-appointed agitator for impeachment is difficult to understand. Granted, sliding advertising creates flexibility in filling newsholes. Then, too, declining readership means there'll be less spillover into angry calls and cancellations. But still, is this really the best a Hearst newspaper can do?

Perhaps the P-I can borrow the magic eraser used by its sister paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, and use it to send this version only to those off their meds.

What is it with the legacy media? Do the execs hold key man insurance policies on the papers themselves, policies that pay off only if they tank? Or, did they all takes shorts instead of options?

RELATED LINKS: San Francisco Chronicle Caught Cooking the Paper

Tom Brokaw says they won't last ten years. Some of the industry leaders may not make it five.

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