Will We Ever Get Any Real News from the Fake News?

Want to understand what’s really happened to the news since every media outlet which carries news content has gone online? Take a look at the website of today’s New York Times. That’s the website of the newspaper which says that it’s carrying all the news that’s ‘fit to print,’ right?

Although actually, to see that statement which first appeared on the paper’s masthead in 1897, you have to look at today’s print edition, which you can read and then download as a pdf document right here.

Notice the difference? Today’s print edition which you can pick up on a newsstand for four dollars (and when I first started reading it in 1959 cost twenty-five cents) contains five stories, one about Gaza, another about Ukraine, and three other stories which combine reportage with personal perspectives on everyday life.

The digital edition, on the other hand, as no less than ten opinion pieces on the front page, none of which qualify as containing any kind of news at all. On the other hand, every one of those entries allow readers to respond with a comment which makes this website just another so-called ‘interactive’ effort, which is what the internet is all about.

Why has The New York Times become just another gossip-filled sheet catering to the penchant of the literate population to let everyone…