Fire Them All

Here's what happened:

Washington Post (AP) – About 70 reporters, editors, photographers and newsroom administrators have taken early retirement offers from The Washington Post Co. amid declining circulation at its flagship newspaper. About 100 employees outside the newsroom, such as those in The Washington Post's pressrooms or on the advertising staff, also took the offer, The Post announced in Thursday's editions.

That's 170 jobs. Oh, if you want to know how truthful the paper has been and how they earlier manipulated perceptions, here's what the Washington Post's Executive Editor announced as recently as March: "The Washington Post is planning to cut about 80 jobs, or about 9 percent of its newsroom, over the next year.... Leonard Downie Jr., the Post's executive editor, said in an interview that the goal of the latest cuts was to operate more efficiently." That's a difference of 90 jobs--only a 113% error. Now, compare his stated reason of efficiency to the more current reasons that they claim:

Circulation at The Washington Post and most daily newspapers has decreased in recent years as readers turn to television and the Internet for news.

We didn't turn to alternative types of media...we turned to media that offered us better reporting less tainted by liberal bias. I don't care if the media is television, print, or intenet. I'll take whichever one is best and honest in its reporting--and, the Washington Post couldn't shake its liberal tag enough to be trusted. If alternate media is preferred, then why is liberal Air America dying on the vine? It's the content, not the format.

In other good, related news from the same article:

The New York Times Co. is cutting 700 company-wide jobs. Tribune Co., which publishes 11 newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, said last week that it would use layoffs to cut costs. Last year, Tribune newspapers eliminated 185 positions through buyouts and layoffs.

Of course, liberal media continues to deny that people change because of content in favor of believing that they change soley because of convenience and cost. Before, liberals controlled the news. Now, they have to compete (a terrible word to them) and react like businessmen (another terrible term to them.) But, as long as they deny the real reasons and don't learn, they will have to continue cutting staff and losing business. In any event, they act like Ken Lay when it comes to their stock values.

Hey, don't the papers owe people a living? Shouldn't they keep their staffs and hire a bunch of illegal immigrants on top of that? No? I guess they think that only other businesses have moral obligations to labor.

You'll hear cries of distress from liberals over this sad news. I say that it's good. Maybe it will send a message to the mainstream media to clean up its act and make the changes that they really need rather than the ones that they believe and announce.