Comments on: What’s it worth to you?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:53:20 +0000

Gangsters, laundering money, buy a bridge, find the toll collections a much better racket, settle into mid-class respectabiggle, until they realize people are smuggling stuff in over said bridge, argue about morality of them busting lawbreakers, given how they got bridge, all go out for Royale with Cheese. Junior thug goes to toss trash off side of bridge, gets headsmack from his betters — “hey, show some respect.”

By: paddyo'

paddyo' — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:29:47 +0000

I’m with you, Nance’ — “discussion-starter,” indeed.
I’m one of those took-a-buyout ex-reporters (i.e., lucky ones, not laid off with nothing, like several friends and too many acquaintances) now toiling at less-interesting but no-less-gainful employment.
This difficult trek from the dead-tree-pulp-rag-on-your-doorstep to the look-Ma-no-paper-no-ads-no-subscription Internet has barely begun, and a LOT of folks and papers are going to die and rot along that uncertain road. (Hmm, Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” ain’t a bad, if depressing comparison ….)The thing worth fighting over in the end –beyond AP’s rather rude and over-the-top definition of what’s NOT fair use . . . five words?! — is whether the system is going to figure out how to keep real reporters and real editors in the field, in the courthouse, in city hall, in your neighborhood, and in TOUCH with those who make news or who witness it, as the print journalism biz continues to circle the drain.
I’d like to be the optimist and say common sense will win out and there WILL be staffs of journalists to keep doing this necessary work, but the doubts are serious, to say the least. I love blogs, but most bloggers aren’t journalists — and sure as hell aren’t reporters. Those who are, are the equivalent of, well, one reporter on one beat. But American journalism is losing scores of reporters every month.
Maybe we’ll have to go through some no-news version of the Dark Ages in the coming years to get to the other side, some neo-Enlightenment Age for the re-dawn of journalism. As I said, I hope not, but have my doubts.

By: LAMary

LAMary — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:12:42 +0000

I actually bought a copy with the headline, “Mini Mermaid found in Tuna Sandwich.”

By: Sue

Sue — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:35:05 +0000

RIP Weekly World News. Gentle creature that I am, my favorite WWW news story was about the fur coat that viciously attacked and killed its owner.

By: LAMary

LAMary — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:21:09 +0000

With the Weekly World News gone, where do we go for Bat Boy news?

By: velvet goldmine

velvet goldmine — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:16:38 +0000

I wonder -if maybe some of the bigger blog-hosting sites could do their own version of the co-op by proposing a “quoting” fee to the AP, which they pay to the AP and which would then give bloggers using those hosting sites automatic rights to quote from those sources. It might raise the price of having a blog slightly, but it’s still the idea of bulk-buying as a bloc to make the price affordable to the individuals.

By: nancy

nancy — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:12:16 +0000

I don’t think the AP needs to charge for fair use to survive. I think this is something else entirely — a discussion-starter, maybe. All wrangling of this sort is done in a series of shoves, and this is a hard, rude one. But I think they’re trying to make the point that, hey, we’re not doing this free, and you folks need to remember that when you get a little la-de-dah with your citations.

By: beb

beb — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:01:40 +0000

What Jim G. Said.

By: alex

alex — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:17:52 +0000

‘blogging is to today’s journalism what jazz once was to music. Jazz evolved in large part because of musicians who wanted to do covers without having to pay royalties. Not sure if any jazz musician ever made the fair use argument in court, however.

By: Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:00:26 +0000

I’m not sure anybody but loudmouthed commenters is seriously arguing that journalism should be free of charge — arguably, food and medicine are more important if we’re going to be handing out free stuff — but the AP’s actions have really been egregious here. The Drudge Retort is the blog that set this thing off, and the AP was DMCA’ing them for 39-word quotes with links, which is what everybody does. How can you not? The AP is trying to redefine how the world works to preserve their relevance, and they just don’t get that right.

Any case that goes to court risks a judgment of barratry, and they know it. So they try to bully and settle — it’s working for the RIAA, everybody knows that, right?

Ultimately, we’re going to have to figure out how to pay journalists to do journalism. But the AP hasn’t found that solution, and I think people here pretty much agree on that, from what I’ve read over the few months I’ve been mostly lurking here.

Anyway — journalism is dead, because the Weekly World News is going under, I hear. That really strikes at my heart. I saved one of their prediction pages, back in the 80’s, and found it about ten years later — after we’d all died from the comet, apparently.

The WWN will be mourned.