Posted 8:10 AM by Gene

This is what passes for deep writing among news hacks: the Sun Belt is in real trouble -- or maybe it isn't. You spend five minutes reading only to discover a hack can't make up his mind. Something is askew in the news biz. An already poor product has become demonstrably worse. There are too many shortcuts: "reporting" on The One's theater attendance and reading habits is a way not to have to report on anything; the obsession with that mercifully soon-to-be-forgotten SINGER was an unprecedented labor-saving nuisance. When so many people concentrate on trivia and surfaces -- think The New CW or The New Econowiz -- it is impossible to know what's what. There's no backstop either; hacks who ooh and aah over Huffnpuff's VAST AUDIENCE INCREASE fail to mention its most epochal contribution to news was when its reporter asked some question at a White House presser. And we suspect certain news sites have been intentionally defanged. With mass laziness comes vastly increased mischief; I can't recall so many advertorials passing as news. Having gotten our revenge on newspapers we are now forced to think of seeking revenge on the Webmasters. Happily if the colluders make good on their threat to charge for their worthless idle typing we will get it.