May 24, 2004
The World
Stephen Glover, one of the three founders of the British newspaper, the Independent is planning on starting The World, 'an "upmarket" daily devoted as much to good writing as to making sure that stories about celebrities and furry animals do not make headlines'.
I for one applaud his vision, and would certainly subscribe to the rag. What I don't buy is Glover's vision that The World "will be a rallying point for those of the Right, Centre and Left, who whatever their differences of political outlook, are united in their yearning for a serious newspaper that is also elegant and witty". That's not going to happen before Jesus returns.
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hell i'd buy it. i'm constantly amazed at the celebrity inbreeding that occurs in the news - do i care about jennifer lopez? why does anyone want to hear about paris hilton making an ass of herself, again? (oh she has her clothes on this time? yeah, that makes for headline news.) who the hell are half of these pop tart teenaged morons anyway? tv is just as bad, if not worse. entertainment tonight is the national enquirer of the airwaves - the theme song hits some self-protective nerve deep in my brain that triggers an instant channel-changing. and the "real" news isn't always much better. like for example when i tune in to watch 24 on fox, and the blurb for the local news comes on during commercials, trying to get me to tune in to hear the weather, the sports, and the "newest developments" on american idol. WTF?? i mean, seriously - is it even in the least bit ethical for a news program to devote 10 minutes out of a half hour broadcast essentially advertising / recapping a tv show hosted on the same network? sure this is fox, but still... if not for jon stewart, i wouldn't watch any news. ever. if it's really important i'll read about it here anyway, right? and probably three days before the networks pick it up to boot...
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Well, it's about time. My wife's a journalist, and I can guarantee that she'll be doing backflips after she sees this. The idea of a newspaper that only cares about news seems to good to be true nowadays, so I'll be interested to see how this plays out. Hope they'll have an online edition so I can check it out here in the States. Brings up interesting questions, though. For instance, will there be absolutely no mention of celebrities (e.g., no movie or CD reviews), or is it the news section alone? And does banning celebrities from the news pages preclude reporting things like tributes to legends who have passed? Is it just the Simpson/Jackson/Lopez/Spears/etc. freak show they're trying to avoid here, or are they going to just pretend that celebrities don't exist?
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* watches clf shoo damn kids offa his lawn, does likewise.
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Damned good idea. But can't we keep the furry animals? I think more stories of furry animals would make this world a better place.
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Yeah, should sell a motza.
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I mean, got 6 comments and a post from 6 potential buyers, yes? World on fiyo!