March 4

In "The Morgue," I appreciated hearing Matthew's point of view about what is going on in the LA Times, and across the country for that matter. It must have been very difficult for him to write about it, given the close ties he has to the paper. But sadly, this is a story we as journalism students have heard over and over again, and I quite frankly am not in the mood for it today. The main lesson I can take away from this that might be beneficial to our media site, besides scrapping it all together and getting another major, is to concentrate on the local. Like he mentioned, he can still get good news about Washington from the Post. In today's cut-backs all newspapers can do is cling to what they do best, covering what is right outside their doors.
In "The Platform," I thought the question of who owns the news an important one to consider when discussing this, I also thought the connection between bailing out banks and possibly bailing out metro dailies an interesting one to make. Why not? Well, of course we know why not. Because tax payers will say it's not up to them to bail out news corporations that dug themselves into a hole -- even though that is essentially what banks did. But for some reason we have sympathy and a need to help those bankers with their flashy suits and money-filled pockets, but when it comes to the scrappy reporter in the tweed carrying around a notebook it's a different story. Grrr....but maybe the reason why it has never been thought that the government and the people who consume the news should help us out everyonce in a while is because we, as the medium (I think I used that correctly) are constantly publishing our woes, telling everyone it's our own fault for not getting with the program sooner. Instead we should play dumb like those smart bankers...and maybe then we'd get a bail out.
In "Imagining a City Without its Daily," I again shut down reading these stories. I think it's important to know what is going on in our own business, but one of these is enough and I'm not sure how else to comment, other than telling the Courant to keep on trucking -- hold ground and do what you do best -- cover the local news and continue investigative pieces.
In "A Nonprofit Panacea..." I think the idea of having a media organziation that is nonprofit is interesting and clearly successful, if the organizaiton finds a family like the Sandler's to fund it. I think using ProPublica's content is a smart idea and something that I would consider doing on our media organizaiton to fill any voids in investigative journalism. I also think that Warren Buffet should fund our project. That's my best idea yet...