The Rangers’ winning its first postseason series in the franchise’s history helped newspaper, and garnered a significant boost in empty newsstands where The Shorthorn would have still sat if editors chose to just have a paper neglecting  history in the making.

So I get it now.

People pick up the paper when there’s color and something interesting going on in the world. Papers just need those things like campus shootings, gun debates, LGBT issues, once lost Chilean miners and the Rangers making history.

Now papers just need that everyday, and people will stop thinking newspapers are dying.

But papers can’t just have anything in it to grab attention.

Newspapers don’t just write a story about an old actress about to die saying she’s not dead yet. They cover the actress when she croaks. But a large group criticize the media for being too negative. It’s really an excuse to not be informed. So papers should just forget about those people. They can get them through their more intelligent friends. These are the readers papers adore. They’re the ones papers write the entertaining ledes for. Papers hope for these readers to first and foremost, read, and then inform their friends and though they don’t get it enough, get the credit.

Back to the Rangers.

What made the Dallas-Fort Worth market hot was all these sports going on. Now there’s this set space and time allotted for delivering the news. It makes me wonder. With all of this coverage of the Rangers and the Cowboys, what would have been budgeted for publishing or broadcasting had these games not happen or turn out the way anticipated.

Well, we’ll never know. But I’ll tell you this: the Rangers and the cowboys can’t deliver for this market forever. The media needs to focus on more tangible subjects.

So it looks like Bill White and Rick Perry won’t be debating each other. And that’ll work to Perry’s advantage. It’s the challenger who has the most to prove. With Perry, many Texans know what they’re getting. That’s all the media needs to say about this – and move on.

But we’re hooked on this debate on the debate.

Get over it. It’s not going to happen.

Beyond that, the media needs to move on from that. Not being able to debate is allowing  the top two gubernatorial candidates to give non answers to questions that focus on hot button state and national issues. We need to call them on that.

So everyone’s harping about how the vote to repeal DADT (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) was slighted by moderate Republicans. We need some context here.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine, both moderates and banes of their party except for this current battle, were considering aiding democrats in passing a bill. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D – Nevada, messed up by not opening the senate floor for debate on the defense spending piece of legislation.

That’s when all hell broke loose and the idea of a nice sunny weekend went out the window.

The two representatives from Maine decided not to support the democrats. If they had, DADT would have been repealed and the DREAM act would have gone through to the president’s desk, according to Republican dissidents.

But that isn’t the case now, obviously.

Sen. Collins said she supported the bill, but didn’t like how democrats (Reid really) didn’t allow Republicnas to dictate some language of the legislation. It’s fair for gays and lesbians to serve openly, but it isn’t fair for Republicans to be treated like step children, Collins is saying.

But you don’t get that on the surface. Multiple news outlets are saying DADT was blocked by Republicans, while blown up pictures of Collins are on all the papers across  the country.

That’s misleading.

Collins expressed her opinions and wanted regular/fair procedures to be followed in the Senate.

But these publications, by presentation, are telling readers that she’s the culprit, she’s the monster under the bed or in the closet.

Is that the case? That’s up to you to decide. This isn’t the forum for such discussion. The only relevant point for the time being is how media are portraying this situation.

Never mind the fact that midterm elections are around.

But many publications’ covers and home pages are telling me, facts be damned.

The Maine representatives are both Republicans. Is that easy enough to understand?

Media groups are dumbing down their content and their coverage by not letting readers understand the basics: Republicans and Democrats do this to each other all the time. What’s different now? Midterm elections? That’s when Republicans and Democrats will fight most. It’s all a show to entertain you.

Come on, voters! Capitol Hill contestants want you! Call in and vote for the loudest, the most obnoxious and uninformed.

Hi,

I’m Johnathan Silver. My passion is telling stories about unique people and unique things that impact people. Most people call this journalism. If that’s the case, then most of us are journalists.

It may be hard to believe now, but newspapers used to inform people and they still do just that today. The only problem is the people, the readers. We’ve changed. We’ve changed our priorities and our interests. Journalists and newspapers as a whole – also people – followed.

What you see now is one of the most important industries in our society collapsing. So many papers have compromised their styles and values. Maybe they won’t say values, but that’s the case.

You see more entertainment and “arts” taking hard news slots on the front pages. It’s not the papers’ fault. They’ve got to make money, but they can still inform the public, and work up ways to trick readers or catch their eye, to put up the paper.

And that’s what this blogs about. I want to bring you the news and show where we are in terms of informing the public, and where we ought to be.

I’m no expert, and that should be okay. I bring the readers’ perspective to the forefront, and the readers are who publications need to hear from. If something doesn’t make sense to the average person, publishers shouldn’t expect a positive response.

Times have changed, but journalism’s basics shouldn’t have. The only thing that should change is how news is delivered, not the news. I’ve seen stories with bias make it on the front page because and on television, because there isn’t enough time to do full out research. If something isn’t ready for print or to get on the 5 o’clock news, then don’t let it run. People get confused when they are misinformed.

Look out for some interesting perspectives headed your way.

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