Hot off the Press: Inaugural edition

There’s been a dearth of non-beer and book related posts on The Quiet Man this month, so I’ve decided to initiate a new post series. “Hot off the Press” will showcase the interesting, provocative, and thought provoking newspaper articles I come across online.

Yes, The Quiet Man, a former newspaper reporter, is shamefully the personification of the newspaper crisis (part of it, anyway). In defense of myself: though I don’t buy dead tree versions of the papers, I at least read the articles.

For a long time I didn’t read papers, didn’t read news. My experience in journalism scarred me. I loved newspapers — loved collecting them, loved opening them, loved studying and scrutinizing their design — but I didn’t love reading them, didn’t love the industry, didn’t love the culture. News disgusted me and I suffered intellectually. I wasn’t informed or educated about current events. However, I’ve changed over the past couple years. Along with visiting the Los Angeles Times and New York Times websites each morning, I always read the Iowa and Midwest papers. Sometimes I’ll hit up the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Toronto Star, and Times of London. Check out the “Newsies” list on the right side of this blog to see the news sites I frequent. Some days I read a lot and other days I scan the headlines, disinterested. Readers have slow news days, too.

I try my best to be current, to be informed, but despite my efforts I still don’t know all I should. I would have to read constantly all day to be as knowledgeable as I’d like to be, but then I wouldn’t have time to write (not on my blog) or eat.

Anyway, here are the first HotP articles, which I’ve culled from the past few days and weeks:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08friedman.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-desert25-2009mar25,0,6168582.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/worldbusiness/12recycle.html?scp=1&sq=recycling,%20china&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/us/05pontiac.html?scp=1&sq=pontiac,%20michigan&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/us/23sprawl.html?scp=1&sq=stimulus,%20sprawl&st=cse
http://www.thestar.com/article/606576
http://iowaindependent.com/12699/toxic-coal-ash-dumps-face-few-regulations-in-iowa
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4714
http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/detached_bitesized_yippetyyap.php

I’m unsure if HotP will be weekly or appear whenever I read something interesting. I’ll figure it out. What I’m sure of, though, is HotP will be a constant victim of link rot, one reason it’s vital to have dead tree chronicles.

Happy reading.