David Simon of The Wire on print journalism

David Simon was on Bill Moyers for an entire hour last week. I was listening to the podcast of it this morning while doing some tidying up around the house. I've heard David Simon twice before on NPR, and these interviews convinced me to check out The Wire after everyone told me "it's the perfect show for you" for two years. The man is smart - I'm not sure how the popular culture shitfunnel turned out someone quite this good. Maybe the popularity of serialized TV on HBO in the last decade incrementally improved the format to the point where it could accomodate such an intellect? Just a guess, I know nothing of these things.

But check out what he had to say on Moyers about the fate of print journalism. I think his perspective as a former journalist really rounds out the conventional wisdom, particularly in noting the pre-Internet shortcomings of the major newspapers' approach.

And this is not all the Internet . . . the general tone in journalism right now is that of martyrology: "We were doing our job making the world safe for democracy and all of the sudden terra firma shifted, new technology, who knew that the Internet was going to overwhelm us?"

I would buy that if I wasn't in journalism for the years that immediately preceeded the Internet. Because I took the third buyout from the Baltimore Sun. I was about reporter number 80 or 90 who left - in 1995, long before the Internet had its impact . . . . Those buyouts happened when the Baltimore Sun was earning 37% profits. We now know this because it's in bankruptcy and the books are open. Thirty-seven percent profits, and all that R&D money that was supposed to go into making newspapers more essential, more viable, more able to explain the complexities of the world, it went to shareholders in the Tribune Company, or the LA Times-Mirror Company before that.

And ultimately when the Internet did hit, they had an inferior product that was not essential enough that they could charge online for it. I mean, the guys who were running newspapers for the last 20 or 30 years have to be singular in the manner in which they destroyed their own industry. I mean, it's even more profound than Detroit making Chevy Vegas and Pacers and Gremlins and believing that no self-respecting American would buy a Japanese car in 1973. It's analagous up to a point, but it's not analagous in that a Nissan is a pretty good car and a Toyota is a pretty good car. The Internet, while it's great for commentary and froth, doesn't do much first generation reporting at all . . . The economic model doesn’t sustain that kind of reporting.

And to lose to that . . . they had contempt for their own product, these people, I mean how do you give it away for free? Listen, for twenty years . . . the ads were the God. And then all of a sudden the ads weren’t there and the copy they’d had contempt for, they’d actually marginalized themselves by the time the Internet had its way.

Here's an interesting series on the future of urban journalism, from a urban problems blog called Where: "Notes on the Future of Urban Journalism," Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Anyway, Jessica and I are making our way through the entire The Wire series, courtesy of Netflix. We're in the first third of Season 2, so if anyone wants to coordinate watching it with us, head on down to the 730.

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Thanks again to Gil

You guys have to check this out:

THIS IS MY NEW INDENTING HTML. THANKS A MINT, GIL. HI BIANCA.

I'm really stepping up my blogger game now.

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Thanks Gil.

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At a block party beggin' for drama.

Jomil and Corin at a goodbye party for two people who by all appearances never actually said goodbye. These two spent forty-five minutes dancing with these small iPod speakers in hand, improvising new lyrics (mostly about Tequila) into Nelly and Missy Elliot songs.

When no one was paying attention I grabbed the iPod and with a few quick desperate scrolls of the wheel, tried to find something I’d wanted to hear for the previous two weeks. The selection was the typical sort of mix of music that you find in the iPod Age. No complete albums, but you know, a mix. Three Patsy Cline songs here, a half dozen bluegrass tunes there, selections from two of the wankier Taj Mahal albums, 30-ish rap singles from the early 2000’s, a bunch of NPR podcasts. I like this because there’s always a good chance you’ll find something you like. I found “Me and My Girlfriend” by Tupac, but I found no one to share my enthusiasm, so I listened to it on the couch alone. People: that is a really good song.

I spent a few days agonizing over whether to bring my iPod with me to Guatemala, and I ultimately decided not to for a variety of reasons. This means that for the first time since maybe 11 or 12 years old I’m going two months without having any real decision in the music I hear every day – it’s a noticeable change but I think I made the right decision. I’ll go days without hearing any songs all the way through, unless I’m on a longer bus trip when I hear the reggaeton jams with AutoTune. I don’t usually miss music, but in my downtime, when I’m not studying, I’m surprised to find the songs that my brain coughs up – sometimes songs I haven’t thought of since I was 14 years old. It’s really weird. Also weird is the mix of songs that I get stuck in my head: Born Against, the Beatles, that “Hey there Little Red Riding Hood” song from the ‘60’s, topped off by George Jones and Joanna Newsom, all in about 45 minutes.

Yesterday I went to a restaurant for dinner for the first time in over a week, and sat through innumerable songs that sounded familiar and American and generically “heavy” with that rap-rock “rapping” over them, and then suddenly “Yesterday” by the Beatles. It seemed really special and weird. I was having a little moment with myself in spite of myself, as I pretty much hate Paul McCartney. You know you’re in trouble when you’re ecstatic to hear “Yesterday.”

Two Favors from the Internet

1. Does anybody out there know how to upload photos from a Canon Powershot to a Windows computer, sans software? Shouldn't Windows automatically detect these things, or does Microsoft cherish its lameness? Any ideas are appreciated.

2. Any Fresno people who might be reading (my parents, basically): please email Charles Nutter and tell him that I never received his email that he claims to have sent, and that I don't have a valid email address for him, and that both of these things are unacceptable.