Michael Moore: Newspapers 'Slit Their Own Throats' (VIDEO)

Filmmaker Michael Moore -- who's been touring the world promoting his new film, "Capitalism: A Love Story" at several international film festivals -- argued on Monday that U.S. newspaper publishers have no one to blame but themselves for their declining financial health.

"These newspapers have slit their own throats," he said. "Good riddance." From The Wrap:

Moore said that newspapers, bought up by corporations in the last generation, have pursued profits at the expense of news gathering. By basing their businesses on advertising over circulation, newspaper owners have neglected their true economic base and core constituency, he said. [...]

Moore cited newspapers like those in Baltimore or Detroit, his home town, with firing reporters that cover subjects that affect the community.

Here's video:

Comments

[ekimnedrab]

I ain't postin' here until I get some answers, but...
I'm sure havin' fun sendin' harrassin' e-mails to
yourcommen­ts@foxnews­.com

[Tags]

Actually, GM probably would've supported not funding driver ed because ignorant drivers smash more cars and hence, buy more cars.

[Puffin16]

I'm one of the few who still subscribes to a local newspaper, although it has cut back on home delivery to 3 days a week. A couple of weeks ago, the front page, and subsequently 4 inside pages, were wasted on an investigative report that uncovered that one of the coaches at the state university is making the football team practice too much! Oh, the horror!! The only reason I still subscribe, to be honest, is for the crossword puzzles.

[greysells2]

Fewer op-eds, pundits, pols and talking heads would be a good start as well. Media personalities are NOT the story so stop reporting on feuds, dares, hirings and firings, etc. No one really cares. It's about the news not about YOU. Focus on news and investigative journalism.

[greysells2]

The laziness of reporters basing their stories on press releases and leaks by anonymous informed sources was a significant factor. Note the run up to the Iraq War as a particularly shameless moment. The advent of blogs gave readers an alternative. The sixty second sound byte and the 24/7 news cycle was factor as well. I don't think print media will be missed very much. Community papers will survive. good luck to the newspapers trying to monetize their internet presence. Few are going to pay for their output.

[DotCommie]

Reporters are overworked -- not lazy. What you observe is not laziness -- it's the result of having to write a story a day (in smaller papers, it's two stories a day) on deadline. Doesn't leave much time to do real reporting or newsgathering.

[NewsieBee]

It's clear you have no clue. Lazy? Ha! Reporters are VERY overworked...and underpaid.

To give you an example, up until recently, I worked for a local paper in a busy metropolitan area. I covered 3 towns and got paid in the very low 20s a year. Yeah.
Picture yourself working 60 hours a week, being on call (because news happens at any time), keep up with emails and phone calls from governors to little old ladies asking why you didn't write about a complaint she has about her building.
Then pray you don't get sick or a press conference canceled.
Then write 2.5 stories plus various newsbytes per day.
Being denied access to public information through bureaucratic red tape doesn't help. Nor does paying $56 for public records. BTW, that comes out of my pocket because the paper doesn't have any money left for things like that. I also spent money making my own business cards. Try to guess how much I spend on gas.

Still, with all its flaws, I have a passion for writing and reporting. Besides complaining, what do you do?

Here's what you need to do: encourage reporters and suggest the kind of stories you'd like to hear about AND PAY $3 to $5 per edition because that's how much it could cost to hire more reporters so they can have the time to do the investigative journalism that you would be comfortable with.

There is so much more I could say...*sigh*

[VJKramer]

Another way that newspapers got in trouble was when an employment ad on CraigsList.com cost $75 or a postage stamp sized ad in the LA Times for one day cost $1000.

[jorjan]

And how many does Rupert Murdoch own?????????

[devans00]

Mr. Moore speaks the truth as usual. We are living the consequences of the aggressive defamation of education and literacy. Bet the newspapers don't think anti-intel­lectualism is so smart, now.

[keerod76]

There are a ton of reasons why newspapers on DOA. Moore does hit on probably the biggest. Once newspapers went corporate and became "Wall Street", that was a fatal move. This started to happen in the 80s when newspapers became enamored with profits. Once you throw in their inability to monetize the internet and you have what we have today. A newspaper industry that, in a couple of years, will cease to exist. I shudder to think what this will do to local reporting. Who in the world is going to report on the local corruption that is going on in our communities???

http://balmer.typepad.com/keithsmooth/
Sports, Pop Culture, & Comedy

[Teadye]

The locals will probably make a big comeback on the internet. There's only so much national/i­nternation­al news people will want, but local news coupled with local adverts are still in the running. IMHO there will be a boom now that the pressure to fill up the locals with the AP feed is diminishing. Just because some mega-industry is belly up it isn't the end of the world. It isn't like people aren't going to want news... where there's want there will be providers to satisfy.

[rockinroll]

Corporate America destroys business, community and lives. It's only concern is Quarterly Profits. Any business that is Family owned cares about it's employees, town, product, service and reputation. We must get back to these kinds of companies. Corporations suck the life out of everything, put the money in their pockets and all without a second thought!

[capitaldysfunction]

Amen and amen. The truth is all around us and we ignore it at the risk of ourselves and our families. Capitalism specifically in the U.S.A., as practiced by corporations, is a death panel for all of us.

[JePense]

Newspapers need to BE newspapers to survive and instead they keep trying to be first: televison and then: the Internet.

The passenger railroads went out of business because they competed with each other as if they were in the railroad industry. It turned out they were in the transportation industry - and they had forgotten about buses, planes, and cars!

Newspapers have to figure out what they can do better than anybody else and do it.

If newspapers don't figure out how to restore themselves as NEWSpapers, we'll be left with the lazy armchair news jockeys on cable who read Huff Post and repeat it on air. These pretty folks don't seem to have any memory of previous events (not on film) and therefore are inept at putting any story into context.

We have not seen the fruits of journalism for a long time. Cable - and for a large part the internet - offers only opinions, but no news. Oddly, they frequently interview other news jockeys. Today they interviewed a People Magazine!

No one wants to read anymore (less soccer practice, more books please), they just want to talk and spout. Look at what I'm doing now :-)

[wayne64]

Excellent

[CJWebber]

Well said.

[NewsieBee]

You make a good point.

BTW, a recent study report said that less news coverage also led to more corruption.

[StephenBP]

I picked up a Hartford Courant a while back because of a photo on the cover about a prosperous, capitalistic recycling operation. OK, so far so good. But within a short time of opening the paper, any positive, hopeful vibe was completely trashed by some hateful, invective laced, irrational­,nationall­y spewn op-ed targeting some group that I belonged to. This to me is another example of the way papers slit their own throats. They publish the vile bile of syndicated haters who are bound to verbally assault at least of half of their potential readership. They have become a disease vector for polarization.

[wolfgangmo]

"a disease vector for polarization"

Best statement today.

[kickatthedarkness]

The few remaining "investigative journalists" employed by newspapers have learned the length of the leash from the "examples" made of others. Most would never dream of testing it.

Gary Webb lives.

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/coke-or-pepsi/

[Sirenissima]

The free press (newspapers like Metro, amNew York) has also been accused of harming sales of "real" newspapers. I don't question the quality of their journalists (who are merely writing for that particular format - concise and to the point), but I wonder how much integriy they have to compromise; if people read these papers simply because they're free; if there's a notion of press-titution involved in their production.

What do you think?

[wayne64]

It's a lot easier to read a paper that's free than one you have to pay for. People naturally expect more from a paper you pay for, however...If the free paper gets more readership(thus better results for the advertisers) due to its"freeness" than the "paid for"newspaper then that would definitely hurt "real paper's" advertising revenue. I would expect press-titution with free papers especially when they first start up.

[patriotrebel]

Increase circulation? How? The baby boomers who grew up on newspapers are aging and dying off, and the younger, sophisticated generation prefers to get its information and news digitally, and besides, the young people are way too distracted by the internet, video games, cable, twitter, ipods, etc. to read newspapers. Now, about that diet...

[anticapitalist1983]

papers are controlled by corporate and advertiser interests and WE, the younger generation, KNOW that, and THAT is the reason why we turn to the internet so much.

i don't pity the newspapers. i pity american discourse.

[Chopin]

There's an indispensable role for journalism in newspapers, especially investigative journalism. Anybody that has watched the movie "All the President's Men" showing the inside story of how Woodward and Bernstein painstakingly investigated and uncovered the Watergate break-in and cover-up. Without their work and Washingtonpost, there would have been no threat of Nixon impeachment, and all the subsequent fallout.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=all+the+president%27s+men+part+1&search_type=&aq=0&oq=all+the+president%27s+men+

Huffingtonpost, good as it is, cannot replace a fully staffed newspaper. It does not come cheap. Any person casually dismissing the vital role of newspapers and investigative journalism do so at the peril of losing a pillar of democracy.

[bud812]

Man im counting on this younger generation to fix this country,you guys seem to have a more realistic take on life than the dinosaurs that currently run things!And i only hope my two sons think for themselves rather than believing what the corporate media pukes out.You young people hang in there your time is comming, i just hope you too dont get corrupted!