Pluggers by Rick McKee for March 18, 2023

no kidding

Yeah, it’s hard to roll up an iPad when you want to swat a fly.

But nowadays, nobody agrees on what “the news” really is. There is always a slant.

The plugger when he was young got his TV news the same time every evening from Walter Cronkite.

The plugger says, “Just give me the bear facts.” (Apologies to Gent!)

I Agree …. X gets the square ;-)

especially the “Comics” pages

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” — Mark Twain

I give it another 12-18 months. The caption here will then read “Pluggers are the last generation to understand how important newspapers WERE.”

I now pay more per month for a real paper than I used to pay for a full year. I think I’m paying the salary for the rural delivery person.

I remember the famous line of Sargent Joe Friday – “Just the fact s ma’am, just the facts.” It was nice when journalists only wrote about the facts. No personal opinion, no slant, no spin, no politicization.

Today’s News in on perpetual spin cycle…

There are comics in each one.

Newspapers and magazines are going under because they’re Liberal rags that no one trusts.

This plugger gave up on newspapers years ago. They have turned into flyers interspersed with a few opinions and paying for them just seemed to be too much.

In New York, in 1900, there were 15 Newspapers publishing in english, and numerous Hebrew and Chinese newspapers. The internet of its day.

I miss being able to afford a newspaper.

Eh me used to reads newspapers just for them comics. These days me gets em from Go Comics.

Advertisers left the newspapers. The price of the newspaper went up. More people stopped subscribing. More advertisers left the newspapers.

I can download and print the crossword puzzles and read the comics here.

The editorial slants, no matter the direction, are the reason I quit taking the paper here and I haven’t watched a news show in several years. I was talking with someone who challenged me on my decisions about the news and I explained I would simply like the all the facts with no editorial bias, I’m still capable of forming my own opinions.

It has to do with learning how to read when schools taught that subject.

If you live where there is snow you know how important newspapers are.

After you read them, you put them on the garage floor.

I still have a subscription to my local newspaper, town population about 35,000. Not hard copy now, but digital. Helps keep me informed on local news, functions, elections, sports, obits, ads, etc. Nowadays, news hits the internet and TV so fast, a local paper can’t really keep up, but still plenty of news for them to print.

I miss the newspapers. Not these things that end up free in my mailbox. I used to take the Detroit Free Press, The Lansing Journal and The Grand Rapids Press. They don’t deliver anymore.

Sadly not anymore

I love a good newspaper- – any around?

When I was young I remember my Grandfather saying be open minded, only believe 1/2 of what you read and 3/4 what you see (That was in the ’60’s) ….. now-a-days I believe that it has to be updated to only believe 1/2 of what you see and maybe up to 1/4 of what you read …… :(

News is important, newspapers are not.

I still get the newspaper every day. However, since the start of Covid I have not been comfortable with having something someone else (who might be ill) touched the same day sitting on my kitchen table to read so I have been reading online – though I hate reading anything of length on a computer, too much concentration needed to follow it.

(At start of Covid mail would be taken from the box with plastic sandwich bag on hand – fit better than plastic gloves on me, easier to find then and much cheaper – and placed in large ziplock bag in porch for a week before being read and did not want to let newspaper to sit like that as would be even staler news by then. Now only leaving the mail in a bag for one day before opening – and, yes, still either wipe down items coming into the house with alcohol or it sits at least a day before using/storing So I started doing something I hate – reading the paper online – comes with subscription. I continue to do same while paying for paper delivery as it is cheaper than the online version for me as I kept complaining over the decades about newspaper increases and since with them so long – and they have fewer and fewer subscribers – they keep turning the price back. Papers keep coming when not stopped and stay in side porch – just took most of them plus other recyclables out which I do about once a month, and kept a few papers so we have for putting down when painting or something else messy, but read paper online) Also I put it on vacation hold a couple of times of year – still get online version to read.)

The was a headline in USA Today, “Was 2009 The Year We Stopped Reading?” I mentioned it to my English professor, and she said, “I’m surprised it made it this far.”