Late Friday, buried in the NDAA legislation Obama signed, was the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act”.

The Washington Post has primed the American public to equate “Russian Propaganda” with “fake news” (despite admitting after the fact that their own report was essentially fake”) while the US media has indoctrinated the public to assume that any information which is not in compliance with the official government narrative, or dares to criticize the establishment, is also “fake news” and thus falls under the “Russian propaganda” umbrella, the scene is now set for the US government to legally crack down on every media outlet that the government deems to be “foreign propaganda.”

Just like that, the US Ministry of Truth is officially born.

How long till the Boise Gaurdian gets labeled “fake news” due to its noncompliance with Team Dave news releases?

2. People are inherently lazy and you actually have to read a newspaper while TV and Internet video only requires you to look and listen.

3. I quit taking the Idaho Press Tribune when they cut out Monday’s newspaper and raised their subscription rates by $50/yr.

4. Almost no investigative journalism can be found in newspapers anymore. Blogs break more news than most any other news outlets.

5. Magazines, again they deliver last weeks news this week. I do still take Bloomberg Businessweek as they still have noteworthy articles

6. You want news? Try the Wall Street Journal. I don’t know why local news outlets can’t follow their example. The WSJ is not cheap by any means but they do have a lot of newsy stuff. Even the TV news pulls stuff from the WSJ on a daily basis.

My mother-in-law worked at the Statesman before the age of computers (and obviously before Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and the feeling back then was that if you worked at the newspaper, your job was safe because “everyone needs the paper.” If only they could see how wrong they were.

I think that the Guardian hit the nail on the head with a prime reason why the Statesman is going the way of the dinosaur. Why should I have to pay up to $2 a day to read regurgitated PR spin from ACHD, City of Boise, State of Idaho, etc. when I could just get that same spin for free from the local TV and radio stations which pretty much do the exact same thing. There is little-to-no effort from any local media outlet to dig beneath the headlines… costs too much money. It’s better to just copy and paste.

EDITOR NOTE–Afraid the ECONOMIST post below says it all when it comes to the quality of the investment.

EDITOR NOTE–We agree on the reporters. A close read of the original post will show we were pretty fair in the report and note it is the times we live in–for the most part– that cause the decline of the printed word. Every community NEEDS a good newspaper.

This has moved into TV news, I can not watch any national news service since they are more concerned with telling me how to believe rather than giving me information and letting me come to my own conclusions. They are entertainers, not journalists.

I feel bad for the employees of the newspaper industry, but not for the industry itself which is a victim of its own demise and failure to adapt.

I predict a change of location for the local paper also comes with another downsizing, and reliance on remote third-party content. How long until the paper’s news is just an app for local government and business to upload their press releases as “news”, then have some AI auto-generate a headline and by-line.

EDITOR NOTE–DONE! On your authority alone.