“Getting in the Newspaper”

National Public Radio this morning pointed out that Pres. Obama has not given an interview to The Washington Post in four years, but was recently interviewed on Amazon for it Kindle Singles interview service. The next time one of your lawyers talks about the importance of “getting in the newspaper” keep that in mind. Perhaps remind that lawyer The Post was just sold. The buyer: Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder.

Legacy media is dying. The nightly gathering of American families around the TV at dinner to watch one of three network national news shows is gone, as is the ritualistic reading and discussion of events from the morning newspapers over coffee at breakfast. There is an official White House videographer; that’s right videographer not photographer. The Pew Center reports that in July, The Cleveland Plain Dealer announced that it was cutting a third of its reporting, the (Portland) Oregonian announced in June that it was cutting 45 newsroom staff and the Chicago Sun-Times let its entire 28-person photo staff go in May.

Here’s more on the Obama interviews, a transaction that a generation ago would have created a storm of ethical debate in the nation’s journalism schools, many of which including my alma mater’s, have now been closed: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/01/166k-for-an-exclusive-obama-interview-amazon-employee-campaign-donations-revealed/.