Before the midterm votes were counted, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis were jostling to be king of the GOP. Trump signaled his concern by nicknaming the Florida governor “DeSanctimonious.”
Not bad. Apparently, Trump was reacting to a new ad from DeSantis, which implies that he is divinely anointed:
“On the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said: ‘I need a protector.’ So, God made a fighter.”
Gannett prints fake newspapers?
An online source called Bleeding Heartland has accused Gannett of printing fake newspapers at the Des Moines Register’s plant. Already understaffed, are reporters/editors really expected to monitor commercial print jobs?
You decide. Here’s the link.
The top twit
Elon Musk paid $40 billion for Twitter just to wreck it. Casey Newton, writing for Platformer, says Musk’s first week saw massive layoffs and talk of putting Twitter behind a paywall. Read it here.
Earth to Elon: There’s too much competition to go behind a paywall, especially with a severely shrunken staff. And if the company was worth the price you paid, what will it be worth after your changes? My bet is nowhere near $40 billion.
LA Times to print elsewhere
The Times will leave its downtown Los Angeles printing facility in 2024, according to a Nov. 3 story by Gregory Yee.
Wonder how many of the 170 production employees who will lose their job will still be around in 2024. My bet – about none.
The plant, built by The Times in the late 1980s to replace obsolete printing operations at its former downtown headquarters, was kept by former Times owner Tribune Co. after the company’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012, Yee wrote.
At least some people are making money in newspapers.
Harridge Development Group bought the plant in 2016 for $120 million. In 2019, New York real estate developer Atlas Capital Group paid about $240 million for the site, which will be converted to “a Hollywood-style lot with 17 soundstages to meet strong regional demand for movie and television production facilities,” said Yee.
A free press matters
In 1733, Peter Zenger was accused of libel, a term under English colonial law meaning when you published information that was opposed to the government. Truth or falsity were irrelevant. Zenger never denied printing the material, but his lawyer argued for acquittal: “It is not the cause of one poor printer, but the cause of liberty.” The jury returned in 10 minutes. Acquitted. Without which we might never have had an American Revolution.
Quotables
Zadie Smith, who wrote White Teeth (2001), said, “Novels are not about expressing yourself, they’re about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic. Self-expression? Go and ring a bell in the yard if you want to express yourself.”
Anne Sexton, poet born in Newton, Massachusetts (1928). said, “I wonder if the artist ever lives his life – he is so busy recreating it. Only as I write do I realize myself. I don’t know what that does to life.”
Sandra Clark is editor/CEO of Knox TN Today Inc.