Paper Words

Occasionally I read a local paper, and wonder who writes for these things.  I am just old enough that I remember when newspapers and local rag sheets were still bigger than the internet.  Hell I wrote for a few local sheets myself back then, but those were different times.  Today I read a review and wonder, really does the reviewer get paid for this.  It is not that I find the online reviews much better, just that I feel I guess that printed ones should be better than the online ones.

Now I should not say much, I have not written in quite some time, much more than my web logs and a few reviews on various sites like Amazon and the like, it is just really, food blogs are better, how did that happen.  I expected I guess that newspapers would still uphold a bit of decorum and not just produce a printed version of a blog.

I remember saying back, oh way back, when computers were still mostly business machines and geek toys, that this will change the publishing field, and I was right, I just don’t know if it was a change for the better.  While I think there is a place for both, and I still like the smell of newspaper, especially mixed with cigar and scotch (both of which I have given up), I guess like the later, I will have to accept that the former is just not what it used to be.  I think that papers are either going to die out in favor of the electronic version, or maybe they will linger, still, fed by local funds of supporters who pay hack writers to write positive prose about their establishments.  I don’t think you will find any level headed critiques anymore, it is really become all about the money, online or offline, it is really all about the sponsor.

Has it really ever been any different?  Now that I think about it, not really, just the eloquence of the writers of the past made it seem a little less transparent.  With the advent of transparency, I think sometimes we have gone down a slope that was unnecessary, opening the way for plain language and short hand for blatant advertising in the form of journalism.  In our pursuit of transparency, we have revealed a side of life that maybe always was, but sometimes the magic is in not knowing how the trick was done.  Unfortunately I think this is the way of things, and I am just another ghost of the past, soon to be as forgotten as real food and decent service.