Death of a Nemesis

I’m going to miss the newspapers. Except for one year in Vietnam when it was not possible, I have subscribed to a daily newspaper without break since I was seventeen. One of my most vivid memories from plebe year at West Point was the first snow storm. My duty was to go out to the sally port before breakfast and fetch the papers. They were there, so was I. Drifts were four feet deep. The wind howled. I had ice in my nose and ears. For an Alabama boy it was painful but no discomfort was more important than getting those newspapers. I never considered any alternative. There was none.

It was a part of our curriculum to subscribe to a different paper each year; one year it was the Herald Tribune, the next the Journal American, then the New York Times. That’s only three. I don’t remember the fourth. Only the New York Times survived the sixties. I’m not sure how much longer even the Gray Lady will be around.

Newspapers once ruled the world. When we came to North Texas there were two major papers here. The Dallas Times Herald came in the afternoon, and of course there was the Dallas Morning News. We subscribed to them both. They each had their star reporters, and their columnists. It didn’t last long. I suppose TV news got to the Times Herald first. I don’t remember the exact sequence but as best I recall the two papers began combining their production facilities, then their news rooms, and finally the Times Herald was no more. Now I see where the DMN and the Ft. Worth Star Telegram will begin sharing sports coverage. One will follow the Mavericks and Stars, the other the Rangers. For now they will both continue to cover the Cowboys. I wonder for how long. Of my five adult children, only one subscribes to a daily paper. I think we have established a trend.

When I was eleven my dad got sick and was bed ridden for a year. I had never heard of the New York Times but he subscribed to it and read every page. I didn’t understand that at the time but to this day before I get on an airplane I buy a copy and, like my dad, I read every page. And I love to complain about it. The NYT is the epitome of the Main Stream Media. AAAGHH! They don’t report the news, they spin it. When the facts on the ground don’t fit their agenda they report selectively. At last resort they manufacture the news. AAAGHH!

But what’s the alternative? On my second tour in Vietnam I got the Stars and Stripes, not a bad paper but trust me, the NYT is better. So is the DMN, or any major paper for that matter. It pains me to see them in decline. The Detroit Free Press recently announced they will suspend home delivery for all but three days each week. Ouch! I don’t go to Detroit that often but what will I read when I do? USA Today? How long will they last? They don’t even publish a Sunday paper. I’m not about to begin watching the morning TV programs. Internet news is good as far as it goes but I don’t see it replacing my newspaper.

Maybe the newspapers and I are dinosaurs. Maybe a million years from now some three fingered freak of an anthropologist will dig up my grave and wonder what on earth that unwieldy piece of papyrus is that I seem to be scowling at. Whatever it thinks I will have gotten the better of it. I will have enjoyed Dagwood and Blondie and the daily crossword. I will have noticed my friends’ obituaries and gone to their funerals. Most of all I will have enjoyed railing about the Dallas Morning News editorial board. I just hope they last longer than I do.