I don’t have the transcript available, but I’ll try to explain as best as possible what I found interesting. They both were lamenting the fact that the Print Media was declining because of the onset of the Internet and the lack of foresight that Print Media had in utilizing the web. This, according to them, is the reason for newspapers and magazines folding at a very fast rate.
What both Mr. Kurtz and Mr. Auletta failed to take into account is a perspective that Michael Moore pontificated at an interview last September. He first brings up the fact that European newspapers aren’t going under (though they are having a tough time due to the worldwide economic crisis), and they have the Internet. Neither Mr. Kurtz nor Mr. Auletta brought that up. This is an excellent example of American egocentrism within the mainstream media.
Mr. Moore has two points he discusses. First, during the nineties, the corporate owners of the newspapers downsized to increase profits. This resulted in the elimination of various “beats” of the local reporting world (crime, labor, etc.). Of course, this will not induce their local readers into buying the paper, since there is nothing really concerning them in the publication.
The second point he mentions is:
We live in a nation of 40 million functional illiterates: that's 40 million adults who cannot read and write above a fourth grade or fifth grade level. We have another probably 40 million adults who can read and write above a fourth grade level but don't have the comprehension beyond that very much. So if you have literally that many tens of millions of adults who either can't read and write above a fourth and fifth grade level or can't comprehend what they do read, you've created a nation of people who are not going to be reading the newspapers.
And how did we get that way?
In the 17 elections between 1940 and 2004, the majority of American newspapers endorsed the Republican candidate for President 14 of the 17 elections. 14 of the 17 elections the majority of American papers endorsed the party that was going to cut back on the very thing that their readers needed in order to read the newspaper, which was literacy and education. These newspapers slit their own throats by siding with the group of politicians - I mean, it would be like General Motors funding candidates who promised to get rid of Driver Education.
In his summation, Mr. Moore had this to say about American newspapers:
America's newspapers in 14 of the 17 elections between 1940 and 2004 supported the candidate that would guarantee their ruination. Good riddance.
Both Mr. Kurtz and Mr. Auletta did not even address these possible causes. I’m not saying that these are the specific reasons for the failure American newspapers; however, I do believe that they should be addressed and discussed at length...that is, if you’re going to do a thorough analysis of the failing American Print Media. I do have to admit, though, that "thorough" is not really a word in the dictionary of the Mainstream Media's seven minute sound bite world.
