While newspaper print subscriptions decline, the more general decline is in the society's appreciation for the public sphere, institutions that serve the public. We are required to look with contempt on anything that serves the public: media, academia, physical infrastructure, government agencies, government policy. All these should instead serve private interests. This is the extreme right ideology, the underlying problem. Print media is not optimum, but the important issue is not the forum formats, but rather the values and the goals themselves. Set the goals to serve the public interests, the common values.

To follow up on what other reader/responders alluded to, while our newspapers were, and continue to be, a primary source of in depth information for our society, they have also been, and continue more so to be, a source of "Establishment" propaganda that limits and harms our society by deliberately misinforming and misleading us on the most vital issues of our time. As Carl Bernstein noted in Rolling Stone (10/20/78), most of our major media owners have been functional CIA assets since the '50's, as determined by the Church Committee investigation, providing cover for many of the major political and exploitive crimes of the 20th Century and now the 21st as well. (note the N.Y.T.'s Judith Miller's efforts to mislead us into our latest act of aggression, the Iraq war!) From the Kennedy assassinaton to 9/11 this media has covered up massive crimes against our people and others. Learning these truths, only found in the alternative media, this medias loss should sadly be mourned only for the loss of the institution itself, necessary for a functional democracy we no longer have. Hopefully Ms. Arnold's vote will be properly counted this election in Ohio but with the HAVA promoted fraudulent electronic Republican voting machines and deliberate voter obstruction, never honestly reported on in this media, I sincerely doubt it will.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is the only American politician who is actually fun to watch, and all our problems originate (at least lately) in the unfortunate provision of the Constitution that restricts the Presidency to native-born citizens. Otherwise Arnold would be the obvious choice for the Republicans, and even if he ran on the ticket of some previously unknown party, neither the shallow, sloganeering preppie from Hawaii nor the wheezing old whore from Arizona would stand a chance against him.

As irrelevant as this may seem to be in the context of columns in small-town newspapers, I hope Ms. Arnold will be slightly consoled to know that the one authentic voice of the American Zeitgeist, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has already Christened our era not only as post-literary, but post-speech, and the loss of her column is only an infinitesimal part of the inarticulate avalanche that the Governator long ago encapsulated in his motto:

"Less talk, more killing."

Jacob Freeze

&YYY&
Local papers in Australia are delivered by people throwing them out of car windows into peoples yards, hit or miss, wanted or not, plus a lot of junk mail goes into the letter box. The papers in my yard are picked sooner or later and go directly to the recycling bin. Its not that they do not contain anything of interest, it is that life can go on in local ignorance most of the time. The local papers are full of trash advertising, just like the junk mail.

The newspapers are gradually declining in readership, which follows the decline in journalistic relevance and trustworthiness.

I am a former elected City Councilman from a southwest Ohio college town as well as a former investigative reporter for two midwestern newspapers. I have watched as the quality of my local college-town newspaper, bought out by the Cox conglomerate, has been reduced to "entertainment," albeit in color print, where once it contained "news" in black and white. Business consolidation of newspaper ownership---which generally remains very profitable---is closely related to laws enabling Media Consolidation in general, also very profitable while reducing the diversity of expression in general.

To my mind there is no necessary relationship between the growth of the Internet as a news source and the decline of Print Media readership or circulation, esp. as the print media have themselves diversified into the Internet complete with advertising revenue on the Internet. This would be esp. so for small town journalism that is supported by LOCAL advertising that is still more viable via the print media than via the Internet.

In other words, Caroline Arnold's report of the cutback of her column by her local newspaper is more a symptom of the demise of the sense of CommonWeal in this country than of the demise of newspapers per se, which latter is itself a reflection of that same demise. For my own part, I have no columns these days, having been reduced to occasional Letters to the Editor in two newspapers, where they usually get published, sometimes with the same sorts of ad hominem attacks as Ms Arnold reports above.

Finally, I was the oldest member of the "Buckeye Brigade" that was bussed from Columbus, Ohio to Manchester, New Hampshire during the coldest winter in 50 years to try to get John Glenn nominated on the Democrat ticket. We went door-to-door. I will never forget it. I later met Sen. Glenn on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse and shook hands with him. I found him charismatic despite my skepticism and his failed campaign. (I later heard that there was infighting within his campaign staff not unlike what we have heard about Hillary's staff.... Not enough "executive experience" I guess! Like being an astronaut in a tiny untested space vehicle isn't "executive experience...")

How times have changed!

So, Caroline Arnold, never give up that ship! I have followed your writings at CD for a few years now and I hope you keep it up.

-30-

I live in Stow OH next to Caroline Arnold's community of Kent. I lived in Colorado for 21+ years - long enough to recognize, when I returned to my home state of Ohio, how conservative is this area. I like many things about life in Ohio but feel as though my very being is dying here for lack of diversity of thought and speech.

Caroline - keep writing, keep speaking out. Remember: Your Silence Will NOT Protect You.

Or anyone else.

Juliann

"But I think it's time for me to step back and hope that We-the-People can make electronic wizardry and carefully crafted virtual realities into liveable sustainable communities, and a healthy world without war."

I assume that your "hope" is in comparison to the extent that most newspapers currently provide that for us. Of course we can... given net neutrality. The web is open to attack and restriction... in part by the same MSM corporate interests who control most major newspapers and of course our own government as well. If allowed, online resources can provide a wider range of topics vital to community, a more closely inspected and balanced viewpoint, a more complete and easy access to background and relevant topics, a much more current and updateable information base, a more inviting participatory process and information that is tailored for and specifically targets individual interests and needs.

It's not surprising that you do not support the transition to electronic media. Some of the most vocal advocates against participatory communication are those whose jobs are most directly threatened by the growth of alternative media. Some of that viewpoint is strictly protectionism, some of it stems from previously buying into an exclusionary lie... and perhaps some from not taking the time to really study the direction that the interactive community has been moving from inception.

I am one who has worked actively to grow and promote the current reality. If you take the time to study how it evolved from birth and the short history behind the most recent growth, you'll see that *change* is paramount. I really can't foresee much alteration to that pattern. What that means in actual terms, is that tomorrow will incorporate the changes that are occurring through the efforts of millions at this very moment. It's going to be difficult to stop that growth without a profoundly fascist effort, Caroline.

You can bemoan those changes and the inevitable consequences to those who refuse to accept them, but I suspect that you won't find many of us who have successfully adapted, buying into your wish to go back to the kind of communication system that newsprint imposed upon us. It wasn't a suitable design for participation.

Having said that, I will point out a few salient facts. I live in Seattle. It is one of just a small number of cities that has managed to retain two major newspapers. They both fight the trend of falling revenues by incorporating individually strong web presences. They are dealing effectively with the change and growing accordingly.

You might consider a bit of that attitude for yourself, either as an individual or perhaps as a part of a cooperative group drawn from some of the other recently affected 8,000 to whom you refer... or you can cry and whine like those who sing a similar song of woe. It's really up to you. I'm finding it difficult to sympathize.

Newspapers would not change when we demanded change, so we created effective alternatives. We will do the same with the way we are governed.

Caroline, I, for one, will miss your regular columns! I happen to think the criticisms DID influence your editor's choice to cut back on your column. I remember when the Baptist Church in the liberal zone of Key West, Florida took issue with my very popular television program, because it spoke about astrology and its relationship to The DIVINE order. As you likely know, the Christian theocrats and their unrelated Zionist cousins would like to limit the world the rest of us inhabit, and one way to do that is through controlling message. It's tragic that those who purport to worship 'God' contrive a God of such limited imagination, one bent on exclusion as opposed to inclusion. Yet as a trance-medium related to me, Ours is a God that works through diversity, note the incredible diversity of forms as seen in the natural world. Indeed.

Thank you for seeing what others cannot or will not... sometimes I think these stoneagers really believe if they stop believing something (real) exists, they can make it so! I had a very wealthy Republican friend in California who'd say over morning coffee, "Well, it's another beautiful day in OJai!" To which I'd respond, "No. It's not a beautiful day. There's been no rain! Nature is dying, the balance is off!" Of course the "optimist" is seen as the person worthy of company, they make others feel good. However, these "pseudo doctor feel goods" are plagiarizing the TRUTH of our world, and that is NOT a healthy prescription!