Friday, February 17, 2006

Will McClatchy stockholders ever catch on?

The McClatchy Company, a newspaper and Internet publisher, owns one of North Carolina's two largest daily circulation newspapers, the liberal trending left Raleigh News & Observer.

McClatchy's reputation is that it pays and treats its journalists very well.

And what do McClatchy stockholders get for that?

Here's an example: a headline from The N&O's Feb. 14 front page:

White House under gun after shooting
What?

You say you could've done that headline when you were 14 and serving as Freshmen Editor of your high school weekly; and you would've tossed it as too sophomoric by the time you were 16.

Ok, ok. But I didn't write The N&O's headline.

And yes, I know it's mostly Democrats of the "hate-Bush" variety that care about The N&O's "White House press corps wasn't immediately informed" Bush-basher that followed the headline.

Well, I didn't put The N&O's Bush-basher on page one, either.

So please, folks, don't blame me for that stuff.

And don't blame me for the really big front page headline story The N&O ran Feb. 14.

If you’re not familiar with the old Tar Heel state, you may not know UNC-CH stands for University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the oldest of our state universities.

Anyway, The N&O's above the fold, top right-hand column Feb. 14 headline story was:
UNC-CH begins jaywalk citations
Honest, folks, I didn't make that up. You can check it out here.

And really, if you know The N&O, its Feb. 14 front page didn't surprise you.

It was just one more of The N&O's usual mix of Bush- and American-government bashing and trivia for which McClatchy executives in far off Sacramento happily pay top dollar.

What about McClatchy stockholders, you ask?

Oh, they've had a hard year.

Today, Feb. 17, Yahoo Finance reports McClatchy closed at 54.93. Its 52 week high was 76.05. Ouch!

Yes, things are tough for newspapers as ad revenues decline and readers keep moving to other news sources, including bloggers, in response to new technologies and growing awareness of the bias and ineptness of most old-line MSM news organizations.

Still, if you were a McClatchy stockholder, why would you pay top dollar for that Feb 14 N&O front page?

Do you think McClatchy stockholders, no doubt good people, will ever catch on and start asking important questions?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

pfttt As always, John cheers for a servile press that bootlicks Bush, or -- at the very least -- kowtows to John's demands and whims.

Get a clue, John, your snit with the Raleigh paper is groundless.

Anonymous said...

Neither of you have done any work at all learning what happened. Do you own work, get some thoughts of your own, then report back.

Don't say different, so far you aren't liars, just ignorant and lazy. Time to use your own brains and quit being parrots.

Forgive me John if I usurped, please. I am just so tired of all the magpies that obviously haven't looked into the story themselves, yet state their false claims with such certainty. Facts aren't subject to popular vote. Seems to be a lesson some are incapable of learning.