The Sun-Times group has filed for bankruptcy. I know a lot of journalists these days who are wishing they'd gone into something steady, like moving to Detroit and becoming an autoworkers.
» Our Paradoxical Press from Ed Driscoll
Ed Gillespie, the former chairman of the RNC who also served as counselor to President George W. Bush writes:
I don’t know if the New York Times’s shoddy reporting is a result of its junk-bond status, or if the New York Times’s junk-b... [Read More]
Do you have any particular Sun-Times columnists in mind, such as Mary Mitchell or Neil Steinberg or even Stella Foster?
While Rich Roeper and Roger Ebert tend to be sympathetic to Obama, they don't really need the money. Ebert's wife Chaz might be eager to work for Obama, though, but she would probably leap at the chance regardless of Roger's employment situation.
eltoro, its laughable that you woudl imply, in naming a few token center-right columnists, that the Sun-Times is anything but a far-left liberal bastion. For crying out loud, it has *Jesse Jackson* as a columnist!
P.S. Egbert does more than "tend to be sympathetic to Obama;" that's like saying "Hitler tends to be genocidal." Egbert went out and said that electing NotMyPresident would "save the republic" (!). This is a man who cheerleads for Michael Moore, and who licks B-movie director Spike Lee's boots because otherwise Spike would call him a racist.
Egbert could wear commie pink and no one would notice.
Queue a flood of self-righteous commenters to insensitively explain how your insensitivity to the plight of midwestern autoworkers and journalists (and -- far worse -- autoworkers married to journalists!) incontrovertibly proves all the bad and insensitive things they ever suspected about you.
Or perhaps not. Comment registration is a merciful benefactor.
Don't hold your breath - it'll never happen. Before that bell tolls the government will bail them out, either directly or by indirectly inducing a "white knight" to do so. For all kinds of altruistic reasons, you understand, not having anything to do with the Times' status as the propaganda arm of the Democratic party.
I'm not too worried about the staff of the Chicago Sun-Times. They are a talented lot, and a couple of them (Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper) are relative superstars in the journalism world, so they won't have trouble finding work if the Sun-Times does not survive Chapter 11.
The Sun-Times management does need to figure out how to increase its revenue from online sources. The paper still has a devoted and loyal readership that won't settle for the Chicago Tribune (assuming that the Trib survives Chapter 11 itself), just as Chicago White Sox fans wouldn't settle for the Chicago Cubs, and many people follow the paper online just to read its litany of columnists, such as Ebert, Roeper, Mark Brown, Mary Mitchell, Neil Steinberg, and Stella Foster (the successor to Irv Kupcinet). In addition, the Sun Times and the Tribune are the city's best source for long-term investigative journalism into the workings of what Trib columnist John Kass calls the Combine, the bipartisan political machine that dominates much of Illinois politics.
So what will be left for them? Piecework for the AP as an independent contractor? And/or becoming a part of the pajamas media and trying to figure out how to monetize blogging enough to live on?
Actually, moving to Detroit and signing up as GIVE Act slaves. They're replacing UAWs now that the automakers are government charitable service projects.
Working as autoworkers or delivering pizzas or driving a cab would do most journos a world of good. Most of them appear to have no knowledge of how things work, how to solve problems, and so on. Our sheltered scribes keep being lied to and presented with obviously flawed policies, and all they can do is write things down.
If there are any unemployed journos who aren't establishment hacks and who want to make some money, start your own website and post videos of you asking politicians real questions to their face at their public appearances. A very good instance of that would get hundreds of thousands or millions of views, and as long as the reporter kept doing that they could get Youtube partner status and start making some good money.
I predict the Obama administration will be picking up some new "consultants" and "speech writers" and "secretaries" and "liasons" soon enough.
But they weren't in the tank for Obama, oh noes.
Lurker,
Do you have any particular Sun-Times columnists in mind, such as Mary Mitchell or Neil Steinberg or even Stella Foster?
While Rich Roeper and Roger Ebert tend to be sympathetic to Obama, they don't really need the money. Ebert's wife Chaz might be eager to work for Obama, though, but she would probably leap at the chance regardless of Roger's employment situation.
eltoro, its laughable that you woudl imply, in naming a few token center-right columnists, that the Sun-Times is anything but a far-left liberal bastion. For crying out loud, it has *Jesse Jackson* as a columnist!
P.S. Egbert does more than "tend to be sympathetic to Obama;" that's like saying "Hitler tends to be genocidal." Egbert went out and said that electing NotMyPresident would "save the republic" (!). This is a man who cheerleads for Michael Moore, and who licks B-movie director Spike Lee's boots because otherwise Spike would call him a racist.
Egbert could wear commie pink and no one would notice.
That made laugh out loud here at work.
Queue a flood of self-righteous commenters to insensitively explain how your insensitivity to the plight of midwestern autoworkers and journalists (and -- far worse -- autoworkers married to journalists!) incontrovertibly proves all the bad and insensitive things they ever suspected about you.
Or perhaps not. Comment registration is a merciful benefactor.
I am saving my schadenfreude for the day The New York Times Company goes under.
Don't hold your breath - it'll never happen. Before that bell tolls the government will bail them out, either directly or by indirectly inducing a "white knight" to do so. For all kinds of altruistic reasons, you understand, not having anything to do with the Times' status as the propaganda arm of the Democratic party.
Megan,
I'm not too worried about the staff of the Chicago Sun-Times. They are a talented lot, and a couple of them (Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper) are relative superstars in the journalism world, so they won't have trouble finding work if the Sun-Times does not survive Chapter 11.
The Sun-Times management does need to figure out how to increase its revenue from online sources. The paper still has a devoted and loyal readership that won't settle for the Chicago Tribune (assuming that the Trib survives Chapter 11 itself), just as Chicago White Sox fans wouldn't settle for the Chicago Cubs, and many people follow the paper online just to read its litany of columnists, such as Ebert, Roeper, Mark Brown, Mary Mitchell, Neil Steinberg, and Stella Foster (the successor to Irv Kupcinet). In addition, the Sun Times and the Tribune are the city's best source for long-term investigative journalism into the workings of what Trib columnist John Kass calls the Combine, the bipartisan political machine that dominates much of Illinois politics.
So what will be left for them? Piecework for the AP as an independent contractor? And/or becoming a part of the pajamas media and trying to figure out how to monetize blogging enough to live on?
Actually, moving to Detroit and signing up as GIVE Act slaves. They're replacing UAWs now that the automakers are government charitable service projects.
Working as autoworkers or delivering pizzas or driving a cab would do most journos a world of good. Most of them appear to have no knowledge of how things work, how to solve problems, and so on. Our sheltered scribes keep being lied to and presented with obviously flawed policies, and all they can do is write things down.
If there are any unemployed journos who aren't establishment hacks and who want to make some money, start your own website and post videos of you asking politicians real questions to their face at their public appearances. A very good instance of that would get hundreds of thousands or millions of views, and as long as the reporter kept doing that they could get Youtube partner status and start making some good money.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinal just offered 200 employees a buyout
Proofreaders are always in demand.
"...like moving to Detroit and becoming an autoworkers. "