Posted 8:21 AM by Gene

Ordinarily we smirk when we hear of news hack layoffs, but this news that TNR might be laying off a third of its staff makes us realize that for all our smirking as news consumers we cannot be safe. God knows the biz has to be rid of its superhuman self-regard, but we fear with all these layoffs the survivors, priding themselves on having outlasted mere mortals, may come to see themselves with even more self-regard. We think of the idiot GRANOLA and her four-letter tirade yesterday. She thinks EXTREMELY highly of herself. We cannot be sure after such a tirade that she is a good person. But then you don't have to be a good person to be a leading hack -- God knows that. We doubt anything that's happened at The Paper of Re-CORD lately has quenched her self-esteem. And the better news hacks think of themselves, the worse their output gets. And it's bad enough as it is.