Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for May 07, 2010

Psalms 81:10:” … open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

Psalms 81:10:” … open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” I thought that was also the motto of Foot size 12 Regular.

The psalmist was a dentist?

Print is dead. Newspapers overcharge and are mostly ads, anyhow. Any news in them is at least a day old, usually several. By the time the papers announce a headline, it is usually old news.

But they are good for bringing us comics, still, I believe it won’t be long before the only place you’ll see comics is online.

There goes good fish wrap.

Hey! I’ll need it if I ever get another cockatoo.

Online news is great, but a lot of what I need to read in the newspaper never makes it online. NEED BOTH……….

Who needs to get all that dirty newprint on their hands.

Nice follow up to yesterday’s strip.

Complain all you want about newspapers but I have a hard time finding anything resembling news on TV. I think Paddy Chayefsky had it right.

Eating fish n chips not wrapped in newspaper is not kosher.

Replace “newspaper” with “balanced news report”, and it might be a bit closer.

Regarding the worth of print media, there’s an argument for investigative news and research having to have a budget, but too many newspapers seem to be as slanted in their views as some of the cable news networks.

That might be because too many newspapers are now owned by the same people who own the cable “news” networks…

I’m just dreading the day when people start asking what’s a book?

Nothing like having a newspaper to read. I read the comics on here I don’t get in my local newspaper, but read the paper for local news. Yes, it is slanted; but less so than some of the TV news. Try being stuck in an airport for days with CNN repeating the same old for 6 hours at a shot. Not even with updates, it is taped and rerun over and over and over…… and FOX is worse. If there isn’t a “controversy” they’ll fabricate one! (and repeat it over and over and over…) At least the paper changes daily!

Just because he can’t see how it affects him doesn’t mean it doesn’t. And there’s more reason that papers are waning than just being replaced by tech. You’re more likely to get an exposure to unslanted truth if you get your news from multiple sources – and read with discernment instead of swallowing whole all that your single favorite source says, like a simple-minded sheeple! Whether they will admit it or not, news sources have an agenda – it’s unavoidable. You must form your own opinions.

Times change… just need to go with it…

The press is the one institution protected by the Constitution. We need it if for no other reason, than to keep watch over the Government.

vexatron1984 said, about 1 hour ago “I’m just dreading the day when people start asking what’s a book?”

What’s a book?

Apropos of the very first comment, I used to have a dentist who actually had that phrase from Psalm 81:10, in handsome calligraphy, hanging on his wall.

Very few newspapers have ever been truly fair and balanced (to coin a phrase!) – either the editors or the publishers or the reporters, if not all three, more typically have had their own axes to grind and their own politics to promote. That’s why large cities used to have so many daily newspapers: it was the only way to express, or receive, a diversity of opinion about what was going on, and draw your own conclusions. Now only the largest cities have more than one or two major newspapers…a tremendous loss.

But it’s the diversity that matters, not the medium. That’s why the Internet is the greatest boon to freedom of speech and the press since, well, the printing press itself. It used to be said that the “power of the press” belonged to those who could afford a printing press; but no one owns the Internet, and anyone with minimal technology has the power to be his or her own reporter/editor/publisher. That’s why the most repressive governments around the world seek to muzzle access to the Internet first.

The downside, of course, is all of the rubbish that runs around on the web faster than fact-checkers can overtake it. I think it’s worth the trade-off.

there is, and hopefully always will be, the serenity of Sunday morning. Back deck, pot of coffee, and the newspapers.

I did away with television years ago. I still like my routine of having breakfast while reading a newspaper, but I get it for local news and comics.

truth be told

good one Wiley

I hate TV news…their slogan “We make the news” is just what they do. They make it up a lot of time. They are too gruesome in some of their murder reporting and they love airtime so much that they will do absolutely anything to stay on the air. Most of them are no better than a bunch of prostitutes (sorry I insulted prostitues).

@jsprat You have brought a tear of joy to my eye. Profuse thanks.

TV answers Who, Where, and part of What. Don’t expect Why. Newspapers tell more and deeper stories but can editorialize the news. Online you wonder who is saying this and what is their agenda.

Ya think I ought to use all sources?

My local paper that I read faithfully every morning (with coffee) is certainly not liberal. I’m left of center in political leanings and get maybe one editorial a week that I find agreeable. But how would I know what is going on in my home town without that particular paper? The repetition on TV news broadcasts, and commercials, keep my TV off most of the day.

PS: The local paper is certainly having money problems. The page size has shrunk, comics are so small I can hardly read them, and probably a third is advertisements. But I at least know which local store is having a sale and what is going on locally for entertainment, and most of all, who died. Everyone should support their local paper or they will all fade away.

I read my local liberal rag’s online edition because it’s free. I canceled my delivery years ago and I’ll be damned if they’ll get one red cent in revenue from me. It’s too bad because I love the feeling of having a newspaper in my hands. I like doing the crossword in pen. But this McClatchy rag’s blatant liberal editorializing in every news story drove me away, and I’m not alone.

So here I am getting my comics fix online too.

Do you know what lead our local TV news last night? The local high school kids were mad because they didn’t like the material their yearbook covers were made out of. Seriously.

Yeah, I wouldn’t exactly place the newpaper on some pedestal above television, but both mediums are dying when it comes to the way in which people get information.

Stick with your current profession, dentists have a high suicide rate.

exoticdoc2:

I just LOVE! your whispered and so exotic Sweet NOTHINGS!

Your other posts are equally dear.

Keep them coming!

They’re seriously depressed - always looking down in the mouth.

What’s TV?

I think “dentistry” has the 2nd highest suicide rate of any profession. Does this mean “psychiatry” has the highest? Is he looking for a less stressful occupation?

yeh, that way you can shove your hand in their mouth to shut ‘em up

I’m surprized at all the comments on dentists and the worth of newspapers. I thought the main point was the slam at us know-nothing conservatives who are just reactively angry because we have a black president and we don’t appreciate what a wonderful job he is doing and that some day we’ll wake up and realize how much better off we are now that the Government is taking care of us.

I love a comic strip that makes me think. This one made me want to turn EVERYTHING off so I can hear myself think. If it’s not a number, an ACCURATE number, then it’s an opinion, anyway. We all see things, experience events differently, so it’s ALL colored by that. If the psychiatrist was a dentist then, at least, he wouldn’t have to listen to all of the ramblings and nonsense. He could just have the steady hum of his drill and his own thoughts…

Actually, donhar, i suspect it’s a cry for help from a guy who makes his living off syndication and that seems like an Obviousman observation.

Scatty, one other thing the internet has done is open up a batch of forums for us wandering journalist wannabes where you get a lot of liberal and conservative drivel vomited back at you, sometimes by drones and sometimes by legitimate folks who are convinced one extreme or the other will solve a problem. It’s a place to vent and sometimes invent. It accelerates the speed at which stupidity and lies can be dispensed, (And repeats them often enough that the mud can stick: There are still morons that think O was foreign born.) And the truth as well. Just has to be sorted out.

One thing those repressive governments have done is place spies on the services to spew their ideals and to keep track of any who sign on against them.

Then there’s radio. A Christian used to be able to listen to a sermon or worship music and get bits of news from the legit wires. When Pat Robertson sold his TV station, he gave his kid the money and they bought up every available Christian radio station, installed their news service and now you can’t get a regular report on any, even the ones he doesn’t own.

So the converse is also true: The too much info can be controlled by one source and you get a constant feed of misinformation as well.

@ dwandelt,

That is true of any subject on which there are differing opinions. It is always best to study all sides and give each argument consideration before making up your own mind.

“I read the news today, oh boy…”

hawgowar said, about 16 hours ago

“Print is dead. Newspapers overcharge and are mostly ads, anyhow. Any news in them is at least a day old, usually several. By the time the papers announce a headline, it is usually old news.”

But, depending on the paper, there often is a more balanced presentation of the facts, a better chance to get a complete story, and not so much hype and hysteria.

I agree with the shrink: if you find yourself getting outraged too often, look to another way to get the news.

I guess I’m the only one old enough to know what the paper is really good for: obits. Don’t find those on TV. Thought I likely just gave some producer a reality show idea.

Remember that the Secret Police (that un-named Company) have planted agents in foreign press offices (and now domestic ones as well), to float stories that then get picked up on the ‘wire’ and regurgitated as ‘news’, and are verified and cross-checked from the other sources (working for the same agency). This has gone on for decades.

Then we have those ‘liberal’ ‘lefty’ reporters. They work for corporate-owned organizations, whose editors and managers control what gets put out. Six (or is it five now?) conglomerates own all of the media. Guess whose word is law there?

And with shrinking budgets for ‘the news hole’, amongst the ‘product’ (ads), too frequently we will see a corporate or government news release run as though it was straight news.

Paddy Chayefsky and Marshall McLuhan both had it right, and we have to look to several sources, and de-calibrate their respective biases, to get anything like a clear view of reality.

Now we are seeing the near-demise of Net Neutrality, wherein the mega-media giant running your ISP can throttle the bandwidth of anything they don’t like. The FCC has an uphill battle to try to keep the ‘Net from becoming birdcage filler (but without the fish-n-chips value).