By now you have probably figured out that I am not a young
person. In fact, I am old, but still young at heart and in spirit.

But from time to time, I have to drop back and compare some
of the things we are living through these days with the things I lived with
long ago.

Today I want to discuss the MEDIA….or as we knew it growing
up, the newspapers.

Here in Houston, we had three papers. The Post, The Press
and The Chronicle. The Chronicle is the only one left, what there is of it.

At one time these were thick, heavy multi sections of
newsprint. They usually had a sports, local, editorial, lifestyles, classified
and other parts on a daily basis. It was a chore to sit down and read through
all of it at one sitting. I had a paper route for the Press. I liked it since
they didn’t have a morning or weekend edition. So, I could throw my route after
school and be done with it. As I recall I had about 125 customers on my route.
I forget what kind of money I made for doing this. Along with a group of friends,
we would meet in the afternoons and roll papers before we delivered them. We
rolled them with string and by the time we were finished our hands and lips were
black with printer’s ink. You would roll the paper, then having wet the end of
the string with your mouth, slap the string onto the rolled paper, yank it off
again, put the string back in your mouth and do the next one. Then you got on
your bike and pedaled through your route area and threw the paper into the
correct spot. Never in the bushes or shrubs or onto the roof, but as close to
the house or on the porch if at all possible. The worst part as making monthly
collections (I think the rate was $3.00) since you would go to the front door,
ring the bell or knock and see the curtain move and then no one would answer
the door and you would have to go back and go back until you got your measly
three bucks. Invariably the ones who were so difficult about paying you were
the ones who complained the most about being 15 minutes late on a rainy day.

Today, we have almost zero newspapers, left don’t we? The
Chronicle is a mere shadow of its former self. So how do we get our news in
today’s world?

The television media is all over the map when it comes to
reporting the news and making up the news. It doesn’t seem to focus on the
reporting angle as much as it does on the opinion angle. So now we get bits and
pieces of the events of the world from many multiple sources. You click on a
news story you see on the internet and you think you want to read more about
the subject. Now you find that this story originates from the Fargo Express and
to keep reading you must sign up for a subscription to open the article.   I don’t want or need a subscription to 47
different newspapers and magazines.

Now if you try and read an article from the beginning until
the end, you might get 3 or 4 lines of text before you start getting the
advertisements for stuff you do not want for any reason. The trap here in
reading this is that every so often they have a button for you to press to get
to the next page. But, the button is cleverly hidden among several other
similar buttons. If you make the mistake pressing the wrong button you are now
directed to a post trying to sell you everything you do not need. The worst is
still to come since now they know who you are by your computer address and you
have now signed up for all of their advertisements from now to the end of the
world. I now get about 15 emails from u-smile pro, ‘lose 15 pounds in 48 hours’
and ‘this is my last chance on my car warranty each and every day of my life.
All because I wanted to read an article about something, I was interested in.

Heaven help you if you click onto something to do with
climate control, a hobby or some political viewpoint, regardless of which side
or position you are on. You are toast. You will get emails, texts and every
other form of communication you can think of just because you wanted to learn
about the yellow breasted sap sucker.

They will even send you a letter by the United States Postal
System.

I have a jar on my desk at home filled with the nickels,
dimes and stamps I have received in the mail from some organization urging me
to contribute to them. It seems to me that if they would stop sending people
money in the mail, they would not need more contributions.

Heaven only knows what reporting the news will look like in
a few years.

It can’t get any worse.

Or perhaps it can.

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