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IN MY HUMBLE OPINION ROkie White
FEATURED COLUMNIST R Ray Collins
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Boulder City's cable TV provider is a shoddy hobby shop
in Las Vegas.
The only good thing about paying the monthly bill is knowing
a part of
the payment (5 cents a month) goes to C-Span and helps pay off
Brian
Lamb's mortgage. One of my favorite shows on C-Span is the National
Press Club, an interview program. In February the guest speaker
was the Editorial Page editor of the Washington Post.
" I have to remind my staff not to get too self-important.
Surveys show
less than 6% of newspaper readers bother to read the editorials.
Writing a good editorial is like peeing yourself in a dark blue
suit... it gives you a warm feeling, but few people notice ",
he said.
Newspaper readership has been in a decline for years. Folks
get their
news from television. TV is shallow and has sound and motion,
something that appeals to the contemporary intellect. The wordage
on an entire TV news program would fill less than 2/3 of a front
page. We are a society that's 40% functional illiterate and 70%
of us couldn't pass a reading comprehension test. Most of today's
reading is limited to tabloid headlines, viewed briefly while
standing in line at the supermarket. When people could and did
read, they would subscribe to a newspaper whose editorial policy
reflected their own political and social beliefs. In those long
- gone days, the editorial page was the spine of the newspaper,
and other sections hung off it like ribs: World, national and
local news; features, sports, business, weather, etc.
I sit by the Hotel Plaza fountain an average of 500 hours
a year; smack
dab in the middle of Old Town, Boulder City. The other day a
politician
stopped by to chat and he said an odd thing (they all do) that
made me
remember the TV interview.
"I'm concerned about the editorial opinion of the local
paper, and it's
impact ", he said. Don't be, sez I... The Boulder City News
has a press
run of 5,000 - counting "comps", pilferage and returns,
it may have a
circulation of 4,500. If surveys are correct, approximately 250
people
read the editorials, and 175 of them don't have the foggiest
notion of
what they read.
Some citizens are setting up a fund to buy the editor of the
News a dark
blue suit...
Cartoon and article © 1998 by Ray Collins
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