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Humor Test

Twas the saying of an ancient sage that humor was the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor. For a subject which would not bear raillery was suspicious: and a jest which would not bear a serious examination was certainly false wit.

Anthony A. Cooper (Earl of Shaftesbury)
Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humor [1709]

New Beats Old

The news media in Pittsburgh is living in the dark ages most of the time. Because of their old-school attitudes, this region suffers greatly.

The news outlets need to consider themselves in roles as digital content providers. They don't even claim to be watchdogs, nor are they good at selling soap. So, they should take the leap and look at themselves with new positions in the marketplace of ideas. As digital content providers, the outlets must recognize that the internet and their access to wide pipes, combined with new, ubiquitous and inexpensive technologies for creating digital content, has fundamentally altered the viewers, citizens and consumers. The industries have changed. They must develop new business models.

Some discussion with Heavy Or Not needs to be technology-for-technology's-sake. Those stories are absent from Pittsburgh's landscape of coverage now.

The almost total opposition to grass roots coverage of creative and meaningful counter points is crumbling the business foundations of these firms. The lack of value in perspectives is rather amazing, and it is only out paced by the sheer drop in value of the firms themselves. KDKA used to be something. Now it is only a slim shaddow of its past.