Bill O'Reilly On Modern Newspaper Decay

Bill O'Reilly has an interesting talking points article up entitled, "Your Freedom and the Press." I didn't see the episode of his show that he refers to in the article (apologies to Mr. O'Reilly, but I rarely watch his show), but apparently the Dallas Morning News tried to tie his program to the death by murder of six Mexicans in Georgia. Ignoring that one case, I found his comments about modern newspapers more interesting.

Recently, The L.A. Times changed the editor and editorial director because of falling circulation. The result is a better, more fair newspaper out there.

Profits at The New York Times company are down more than 50 percent. There's a civil war in the paper's newsroom over the Judith Miller situation. And the paper's perceived arrogance has alienated many readers. Other newspapers having similar problems.

Typically for O'Reilly, he's calling for a boycott--this time of newspapers and mainstream media.

The only thing more powerful in the media than ideology is money. Hurt these charlatans in the wallet, and changes will be made. Turn off the smear merchants on TV, they'll disappear. Only you, the American public, can bring fairness and accuracy back to the media.

I think there is some (though not enough) evidence that this is happening already.

(As a bonus, under the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day" section in to the same column, check out the silliness in Berkeley over Veterans Day. Ridiculous indeed.)