And also, that dappled light on the bookstore is just stunning. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us. Even if it means that everywhere you work goes belly up.
BOB BOB BOB BOB BOB BOB BOB: I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that UR name is a Paradyme; Paradome. Darn! What's that WORD, BOB when UR name is back-WORDS as it is front-WORDS? I cannot think of it quite-write-now. I'm sauced on Gravy from the last 2 days & daze. That's quite BOBvious - (ie: obvious, U know). I have comments for each of your TOONS up above - as they are FUNNiER than EVER, but I am too bizzy laughing & that feels good. FOR every Laugh over 20 seconds, U take off a few Calories. Need that desperately. GOT to sell all your BOOKS as a huge gift box for The Holidays. We start the 2nd Quarter of the 2000s, you know: ON JANUARY 1, 2025. Wishing U & the Family LOADS of Wonderful Wonderment. THANKS for keeping us all entertained. UR hired for NEXT YEAR, too. I have a feeling WE are all going to NEED IT! Later, ASK: China & CALi's MOM from Chicagoland, USA. #GO_CATS
Bob, I wept over your piece on your newspaper days. As you might know, I more or less literally grew up working for a newspaper; it was my first real job (starting when I was 17), and it changed my life. The paper was genuinely connected to the local community, in a sort of relationship that's now pretty much completely gone.
The editor at The N.Y. Daily News has received letters regarding the OpEd and asked I let anyone know he would love to publish their responses. The address is voicers@nydailynews.com
Thank you, Arnold, for sharing your thoughts on the subject here. In private I heard other similar sentiments from those who understand this loss. I wish I had a productive suggestion.
There was recently a good chat between Christine Rosen and Sam Harris about the importance of local news. Here is a snippet:
Christine: ...look, if you're a billionaire, and you want to throw your money at a good cause, one of the best things you could do is to try to revive local news. Because most of the grift and corruption and really awful things that impact people in the day to day happens at the local level. We do not have those newspapers anymore. We don't have the person covering the city council meeting, going to the school board meetings. Only when some huge scandal erupts that becomes nationalized, do people go to school board meetings and cover them anymore. What that means is that that's where the trust deficit begins for people. Because if your city is supposed to come fix a the pothole on your road, and you've complained about it, and you think that someone's getting a kickback from a contractor, and that's why they're not fixing the pothole, how do you prove that if you're just the average citizen? That's the role of journalism. And that would do another thing that I think is important. And that's cultivate a new generation of journalists who don't come out of only the elite institutions.
[00:38:21]
National journalism is now drawing from a very small pool of talent. It's Ivy and Ivy League plus universities. There's a lot of insularity to their worldview there, a lot of expectation of what the right people think. That's always been the case at places like the New York Times and elsewhere. But I think that spread, and you do not have a contrast with the guy who went to the state university and got his first job covering city council meetings at a Midwest newspaper and then worked his way up and then became a political reporter in his 40s at the New York Times. That used to be the trajectory. That's not how it works anymore. I think We lose both the skill and training and discipline of requiring people to cover those local issues and report on them honestly and cultivate sources, learn what it means to be a journalist. We also lose a diversity of worldviews and experiences and class-based differences that are extremely obvious now when you look at places like the New York Times, places like the Washington Post, when they talk about people who aren't from their class, it's glaringly obvious because they don't know anybody who didn't come through institutions and shares their views.
[00:39:32]
So they seem very out of touch because they are. So I do think that those two things, over the course of a generation or two, could give us a revival of the journalism and reporting that this country really needs.
[Jason was the writer, artist for Australia's most important comic strip, Ginger Meggs, all while coming to NYC and becoming a relevant cartoonist in many publications and served a term as President of the National Cartoonists Society. His always entertaining Substack is New York Cartoons.] https://substack.com/@jasonchatfield
"One of the biggest reasons for such division in this country is the extinction of local news…not Taylor Swift or pickleball."
and here:
"I split my time living in Pennsylvania and in New York City, but I never felt more distant to everyone. None of us know our neighbors as well as we used to (that’s right, I’m now just speaking for everyone). The first daily newspaper in this country was The Pennsylvania Evening Post and it helped bring this country together during the American Revolution. On July 6th, 1776, it published on its front page the United States Declaration of Independence. Thank you, newspapers."
The editor at The N.Y. Daily News has received letters regarding the OpEd and asked I let anyone know he would love to publish their responses. The address is voicers@nydailynews.com
Thank you for this really moving and important ode/elegy to newspapers and magazines.
This.
And also, that dappled light on the bookstore is just stunning. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us. Even if it means that everywhere you work goes belly up.
That is very funny. Sometimes I do feel like the Andy Dick of publishing.
Bob how can I reach you to order books?
Hi Sander, Thanks for asking. Email me at Snowmanexpert@gmail.com and let me know what you were interested in.
Thanks,
Bob
BOB BOB BOB BOB BOB BOB BOB: I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that UR name is a Paradyme; Paradome. Darn! What's that WORD, BOB when UR name is back-WORDS as it is front-WORDS? I cannot think of it quite-write-now. I'm sauced on Gravy from the last 2 days & daze. That's quite BOBvious - (ie: obvious, U know). I have comments for each of your TOONS up above - as they are FUNNiER than EVER, but I am too bizzy laughing & that feels good. FOR every Laugh over 20 seconds, U take off a few Calories. Need that desperately. GOT to sell all your BOOKS as a huge gift box for The Holidays. We start the 2nd Quarter of the 2000s, you know: ON JANUARY 1, 2025. Wishing U & the Family LOADS of Wonderful Wonderment. THANKS for keeping us all entertained. UR hired for NEXT YEAR, too. I have a feeling WE are all going to NEED IT! Later, ASK: China & CALi's MOM from Chicagoland, USA. #GO_CATS
Hi Adrienne, Thanks.
https://substack.com/@adriennesiouxkoopersmith666675
Bob, I wept over your piece on your newspaper days. As you might know, I more or less literally grew up working for a newspaper; it was my first real job (starting when I was 17), and it changed my life. The paper was genuinely connected to the local community, in a sort of relationship that's now pretty much completely gone.
The editor at The N.Y. Daily News has received letters regarding the OpEd and asked I let anyone know he would love to publish their responses. The address is voicers@nydailynews.com
Thank you, Arnold, for sharing your thoughts on the subject here. In private I heard other similar sentiments from those who understand this loss. I wish I had a productive suggestion.
Love you Bob.
Thank you, Christopher!
There was recently a good chat between Christine Rosen and Sam Harris about the importance of local news. Here is a snippet:
Christine: ...look, if you're a billionaire, and you want to throw your money at a good cause, one of the best things you could do is to try to revive local news. Because most of the grift and corruption and really awful things that impact people in the day to day happens at the local level. We do not have those newspapers anymore. We don't have the person covering the city council meeting, going to the school board meetings. Only when some huge scandal erupts that becomes nationalized, do people go to school board meetings and cover them anymore. What that means is that that's where the trust deficit begins for people. Because if your city is supposed to come fix a the pothole on your road, and you've complained about it, and you think that someone's getting a kickback from a contractor, and that's why they're not fixing the pothole, how do you prove that if you're just the average citizen? That's the role of journalism. And that would do another thing that I think is important. And that's cultivate a new generation of journalists who don't come out of only the elite institutions.
[00:38:21]
National journalism is now drawing from a very small pool of talent. It's Ivy and Ivy League plus universities. There's a lot of insularity to their worldview there, a lot of expectation of what the right people think. That's always been the case at places like the New York Times and elsewhere. But I think that spread, and you do not have a contrast with the guy who went to the state university and got his first job covering city council meetings at a Midwest newspaper and then worked his way up and then became a political reporter in his 40s at the New York Times. That used to be the trajectory. That's not how it works anymore. I think We lose both the skill and training and discipline of requiring people to cover those local issues and report on them honestly and cultivate sources, learn what it means to be a journalist. We also lose a diversity of worldviews and experiences and class-based differences that are extremely obvious now when you look at places like the New York Times, places like the Washington Post, when they talk about people who aren't from their class, it's glaringly obvious because they don't know anybody who didn't come through institutions and shares their views.
[00:39:32]
So they seem very out of touch because they are. So I do think that those two things, over the course of a generation or two, could give us a revival of the journalism and reporting that this country really needs.
More here: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/392-technology-culture
Thank you, Jason. This adds gravitas to a piece I tried to not be too somber but it is a dire situation.
[Jason was the writer, artist for Australia's most important comic strip, Ginger Meggs, all while coming to NYC and becoming a relevant cartoonist in many publications and served a term as President of the National Cartoonists Society. His always entertaining Substack is New York Cartoons.] https://substack.com/@jasonchatfield
dear bob,
thank you for sharing all of this!
meaningful sentiments here:
"One of the biggest reasons for such division in this country is the extinction of local news…not Taylor Swift or pickleball."
and here:
"I split my time living in Pennsylvania and in New York City, but I never felt more distant to everyone. None of us know our neighbors as well as we used to (that’s right, I’m now just speaking for everyone). The first daily newspaper in this country was The Pennsylvania Evening Post and it helped bring this country together during the American Revolution. On July 6th, 1776, it published on its front page the United States Declaration of Independence. Thank you, newspapers."
thank you for your thoughtfulness!
love
myq
Thanks, Myq. You have to keep the good fight going and people laughing. We both have our work cut out for ourselves in 2025.
[Comedian Myq Kaplan's Substack is MY moment of Zen... https://myqkaplan.substack.com/ ]
The editor at The N.Y. Daily News has received letters regarding the OpEd and asked I let anyone know he would love to publish their responses. The address is voicers@nydailynews.com