NEWSPRINT: THE KRYPTONITE OF THE UPPER CLASS

I’ve got to admit it: I love conspiracy theories.

The latest one I’ve concocted goes something like this:

Somebody has grabbed the newspaper industry by the nuts and they are shameless supporters of plutocracy and they’re on a mission. Somehow, they’ve got it in their sick little heads that by taking out the print product and leaving the online version of news available, a new lower class can be (un)developed and exploited due to the fact that their information sources would suddenly be reduced to the soundbites of TV coverage (IF they have cable or a digital-compatible set.) There’s always radio, but who actually owns one of those anymore?

Sure, a network like NPR might take up more relevance, but, just like the TV networks, they have a certain level of dependency on the established papers for facts and sources and in-depth coverage and accuracy and ethics and all that. So shutting down paper journalism would be like applying a double-edged sword to both the dissemination of information and American citizens’ access to integrity of information in itself.

Somehow, somebody caught the ears of the major newspaper companies in this country and convinced them that the sky is falling. In reality, although the circulation numbers have fallen considerably, newspapers – and I mean newsPAPERS, not the online stories lifted from newspapers – continue to pull in a tidy profit. Ah, but they’re not profiting as much as before, so it’s time to panic like a bunch of pokies hearing a car’s backfire and thinking that it’s a shotgun, and shut down the print operation so’s we can git into this here brave new world of online media that all these crazy kids are into nowadays!

Makes a lot of sense, that is, if you support lowering opportunities for advancement and effectively cutting the lower rungs of the economic ladder. All those folks reading papers on public transit, in cafes, even in the public library, have a vital tie to the “civilized” world pulled away. Information is simply – gone - like want ads, and housing rental classifieds, and no more grocery store ads to compare, unless you have junk mail sent to your mailbox, and hopefully you have found a job and have a place to live through some other means somehow, because you don’t have a very good tie to the Internet unless you sign up on a mile long waiting list at the library or borrow somebody’s computer.

Which brings us to the reality behind yet another lie propagated by the death knell ringers of newspapers: contrary to their sermons, folks aren’t as wired as the pro-online preachers claim. Sure, estimates nowadays show that up to 92 percent of the country can receive high-speed connectivity, but how many people can actually afford it, let alone a personal computer? My unscientific estimate says: not that many, especially when you factor in that 55% of the country is working class or lower in income. Which means that, at best, only up to 45% of Americans can take full advantage of the Internet and that includes the socio-economic benefits.

When the classes detach further between rich and poor (and the glass ceiling between them gets thicker and more bulletproof) don’t come crying to me. At least I tried to warn somebody.