Maine Newspaper Empire Crumbling into Dust

The mighty ramparts of Castle Media are toppling.  It won't be long before the daily newspaper is just another discarded object in the dust bin of history.  Facebook and the internet will replace it.

I'm thrilled.

Daily newspapers are megaphones for the Left.  Socialist politician Chellie Pingree ran southern Maine's paper through her husband -- super-rich communist Donald Sussman -- until this year.  Sussman dumped the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Waterville Sentinel in another fire sale this month.

I never got addicted to newspapers or television news.  I paid a bit of attention to them before the internet came along.  But after the internet showed up I stopped paying attention.  Now I could care less what they choose to print.  I figure if the lame stream media is paying attention to it then probably the item came from the pool of information I label "All the news that isn't fit to print"  (sort of apologies to the New York Times).



One personal memory of newspapers is burned into my mind.

I wrote an email threatening to create a website in 2004.  I was going to publish the sexual orientation of everyone who worked in the State House.  I reasoned that the politicians were the force pushing gay rights in Maine.  The people had twice rejected the proposal in statewide voting.  Since "sexual orientation" was so important to them I figured we all needed to know what we were dealing with under the dome.

I was front page news.  The Maine Senate spent a day crafting a letter.  All 35 Senators condemned me.  Alas.

My only mistake in the whole matter was apologizing.

I should have created the website.

The Kennebec Journal was especially hateful.  Because of my over-reaction to the media spin my board gave me a month off paid.  The newspaper played it up as a form of discipline.

On the last day of my "suspension" the Kennebec Journal put Betsy Sweet on the front page.  She was a lesbian lobbyist.  They praised her to high hell.

So, I'm really pleased to know that the people of Maine aren't buying their drivel anymore.  They don't have time.

They are too busy filling the news hole in their days with pictures of their kids and grandkids.