24 March 2009
17 March 2009
Life in a Two-Paper Town
My love of journalism, in all its myriad forms, began early in my life. For most of my life, I’ve lived in a city that had two newspapers. As a child, growing up in Kansas City, we had two papers – not competing papers, really, but two. The morning brought around the stately Kansas City Times, with it’s gothic calligraphed masthead – the emblem, I thought, of a serious bearer of news. It was under that majestic logo that all the news of the world came to my house. The smell of newsprint is emblazoned into my memory alongside the scent of hot chocolate and scrambled eggs as the smell of my childhood mornings.
When I would get home from school in the afternoon, the Kansas City Star would be waiting – with its modern-ish, Times New Roman-esque masthead. A more casual paper, bringing around updates to the morning’s paper and all of what would later become known as “human interest” stories.
The Kansas City Times, and the Kansas City Star were owned by the same company – a beast with two heads, one might say. They were never really in direct competition with one another, but as the recession of the 1980’s ramped up, feeding both heads would soon be impossible. By the end of that decade, the Kansas City Times would be folded into the Star, and Kansas City would become a one-paper town. It wasn’t necessarily the loss of the majestic Kansas City Times, and it’s grand masthead that was painful to lose, but that I had to wait a full day before another paper would arrive.
A few years later, I moved to Chicago – the ultimate two-paper town. The Chicago Tribune is the Gray Lady of the Midwest. It, like the Kansas City Times, is the more grand of the two – gothic masthead, gothic towered building and all. Across Michigan Avenue are the offices of the Sun-Times – the tabloid shaped paper with it’s much more modern image, housed (at the time) in a squat, brown building – covered in corrugated metal sheeting, with bright yellow plastic lettering that looks, for all the world, like a 1950’s architectural abomination. Yes, the tabloid shaped Sun-Times was easier to read on the subway, but the Tribune bespoke a higher purpose. Reading the Tribune felt to me like reading the truth – perhaps it was tinged with a slightly more conservative voice, but I can filter out heavy-handed editorializing. The Sun-Times, to me, was more of a working class paper – the paper of the proletariat, and I worked on Michigan Avenue and wore ironed shirts. Clearly, I was a Tribune reader. The competition between the Tribune and the Sun-Times was, at least, epic. Sisters Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren (“Dear Abby”) worked across the street from one another at opposing papers – Siskel and Ebert even worked across the street from one another, but came together to talk about film every week. Chicago exploited dichotomy in so many ways – two baseball teams (White Sox and Cubs), two seasons (hot and cold), two sides (North and South) and two daily newspapers – both perpetually swinging their necks just beyond the reach of the ever-present sword of Damocles.
Now, living in Seattle, I’ve enjoyed life with two papers until today. The Seattle Times, with it’s clearly more conservative bias, and the humorously named, and slightly more liberal Post-Intelligencer. Both Hearst papers, both struggling, and one had to be thrown under the bus. Today, The Post-Intelligencer printed its last edition, and once again, I live in a one-paper town.
Thank you Seattle P-I. You will be missed.
Photo by Joshua Trujillo
When I would get home from school in the afternoon, the Kansas City Star would be waiting – with its modern-ish, Times New Roman-esque masthead. A more casual paper, bringing around updates to the morning’s paper and all of what would later become known as “human interest” stories.The Kansas City Times, and the Kansas City Star were owned by the same company – a beast with two heads, one might say. They were never really in direct competition with one another, but as the recession of the 1980’s ramped up, feeding both heads would soon be impossible. By the end of that decade, the Kansas City Times would be folded into the Star, and Kansas City would become a one-paper town. It wasn’t necessarily the loss of the majestic Kansas City Times, and it’s grand masthead that was painful to lose, but that I had to wait a full day before another paper would arrive.
A few years later, I moved to Chicago – the ultimate two-paper town. The Chicago Tribune is the Gray Lady of the Midwest. It, like the Kansas City Times, is the more grand of the two – gothic masthead, gothic towered building and all. Across Michigan Avenue are the offices of the Sun-Times – the tabloid shaped paper with it’s much more modern image, housed (at the time) in a squat, brown building – covered in corrugated metal sheeting, with bright yellow plastic lettering that looks, for all the world, like a 1950’s architectural abomination. Yes, the tabloid shaped Sun-Times was easier to read on the subway, but the Tribune bespoke a higher purpose. Reading the Tribune felt to me like reading the truth – perhaps it was tinged with a slightly more conservative voice, but I can filter out heavy-handed editorializing. The Sun-Times, to me, was more of a working class paper – the paper of the proletariat, and I worked on Michigan Avenue and wore ironed shirts. Clearly, I was a Tribune reader. The competition between the Tribune and the Sun-Times was, at least, epic. Sisters Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren (“Dear Abby”) worked across the street from one another at opposing papers – Siskel and Ebert even worked across the street from one another, but came together to talk about film every week. Chicago exploited dichotomy in so many ways – two baseball teams (White Sox and Cubs), two seasons (hot and cold), two sides (North and South) and two daily newspapers – both perpetually swinging their necks just beyond the reach of the ever-present sword of Damocles.Now, living in Seattle, I’ve enjoyed life with two papers until today. The Seattle Times, with it’s clearly more conservative bias, and the humorously named, and slightly more liberal Post-Intelligencer. Both Hearst papers, both struggling, and one had to be thrown under the bus. Today, The Post-Intelligencer printed its last edition, and once again, I live in a one-paper town.Thank you Seattle P-I. You will be missed.
Photo by Joshua Trujillo
26 February 2009
Such a blog derelict!
I've been REALLY derelict in my blogging duties! I've spent a lot of time over the last couple months working on www.GrowingAppetite.com and haven't gotten a chance to come over here and write. My last was a Christmas post! And here it is almost Spring!
Check out the garden project blog over at www.GrowingAppetite.com and see what's bloomin'!
22 December 2008
18 December 2008
Am I alone here?
Or is Rahm Emanuel one sexy bastard?
It's about time we had some attractive leadership. 'Cause right now, this is the current White House Chief of Staff.
Not hot.So, just a refresher:
Rahm Emanual is a sexy man.Josh Bolten is not.I swear I'm working on writing more, but with the election, Prop 8, mormons, stem cell research, the current administration's "victory lap" and everything else, there's just too much brewing.
But by this weekend, I'll have something new, I promise.
But by this weekend, I'll have something new, I promise.
11 November 2008
06 November 2008
It's on, Mormons!
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or "Mormons") has made it clear, again, that they have every intent of participating fully in government activities. If they wish to do so, then they are obliged to surrender their tax-exempt status. This is the simplest example of "Pay to Play." At a purely ethical level, how can an organization believe that they have every right to steer acts of government while never paying taxes? How does that work?This must end. Today, it's the gay people. Who next? Catholics? Mexicans?
I encourage you to click on the link above, and send the Form 13909 to the IRS. The site will direct you to a truckload of information about reporting Not-For-Profit entities who opt to abuse their tax-exempt status. Churches (not just the Mormons) need to start paying their share. Imagine how quickly that deficit would lighten as soon as churches start paying up. As soon as their tax bills are settled, then they can advance all of the monstrous, morally bankrupt crap they want to, to give the rest of us with a reasonable measure of intelligence something to laugh at.
No more Mr. Nice Fag. It's on.
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