RETURN TO REASON DAILY PILOT KILLS MONDAY PAPERS
In a column today, Waving Tom Johnson, the publisher of the Return to Reason Daily Pilot, announced, that as a cost cutting measure, the paper will no longer publish a paper copy of the, er, paper on Mondays. LINK
As an expert on newspapers (I played a reporter in a movie once), I have to agree with Johnson when he writes: " Fact is, local community newspapers seem to be the light at the end of the tunnel for the newspaper industry."
Although we often disagree with the positions taken by the Pilot, we'd hate to see the paper fold, and we're glad to see Johnson take action.
Apparently, 14 people in the community newspaper empire, that includes the Pilot, also lost their jobs. We were sorry to hear that. Over the years, we've had to lay off people from various businesses we've owned or been involved in, and it was always the worst and saddest part of the job.
On a positive note, we think the Pilot made a smart business decision recently when it linked to some community blogs--and especially to the CM PRESS. It doesn't cost the paper anything, and it gets lots of free content and increased traffic to the Pilot's electronic version.
However, there is a problem.
We think the Pilot needs to tweak its linkage policy a little, because it presently links to an anonymous blog--cmtruth--written by an intolerant bigot and hater who may be mentally ill (seriously), and whose only purpose appears to be to publish defamatory material and then hide behind the anonymity.
We're all for a robust and free press including blogs, but if people are afraid to say things without hiding, they probably shouldn't be saying them, and the Pilot shouldn't be involved in helping them spread their hatred.
And, yes, this could eventually lead to legal problems for the Pilot. It's a long held legal principle that a re-publisher of defamatory material is as liable for that material as the original publisher.
So, here's hoping the now Almost-Daily Pilot survives, but also that it acts responsibly and only links to blogs when the writers of those blogs don't hide under sheets while they try to harass and smear others with veiled threats and serial name calling.
Yes, Daily Pilot, let bloggers call names and act like asses if they want, but don't cloak their identities and don't stoke the psychoses of the mentally ill.
Let each blogger take responsibility for what he or she writes, just as the writers at the Pilot take responsibility for what they write, and let everyone--including law enforcement, and mental health professionals--see who the bloggers are.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
