Seattle's Silly Newspapers
The pathetic state of Seattle’s newspapers is amazing ... and depressing. Seattle has one of the highest percentages of college graduates of any city in the country. We all know it because people around here love to brag about it. Yet, reading the printed media from this city is about as interesting as watching the grass grow in August.
You would think that the Seattle PI and the Seattle Times would have already caught a clue. Everyone knows .....
that their readership and circulation is in decline. Yet, these newspapers exhibit customer focus and sensitivity that makes the big airlines look good. After all, do you know of any other business that deliberately alienates its largest customer segment?
In the case of newspapers, the largest customer segment is male. There is and has been plenty of hand wringing about this fact. Of course, any Women Studies madrassa graduate would tell you that this is simply because newspapers are part of the larger patriarchal conspiracy they are so paranoid about. But, really, newspapers are just a format that is better suited to men, while women, like it or not, prefer other formats.
They say the problem is that newspapers are run by men who stereotype women when they try to write for them. I’d say that is probably true, but for the opposite reason than, say, Maureen Dowd would give. Newspapers tend to hire Women Studies madrassa graduates when they are looking for female reporters. These women are obsessed with painting women as victims. Problem is, far left feminists are hardly the “voice” of women in the country (even though they scream the loudest). Anyway, who wants to read about what a victim they are every single day? Worse, what guy wants to read about how they are victimizers every day?
So, what do the Seattle newspapers do? They turn around and alienate men as often and as vehemently as they can. That would be like the NFL alienating beer drinkers or the Oxygen network running nightly programming about bitchy women with PMS.
As usual, amateur journalist extraordinaire Nicole Brodeur provides the perfect example. Her recent column is all full of angst over the fact that restaurants prefer young and attractive women (and men for that matter) to wait on tables and behind the bar. Oh, and the larger societal problem is that ugly waitresses get tipped a lot less than attractive young waitresses.
Brodeur defines an entirely new victim group: old unattractive women that are trying to make it as cocktail waitresses. I could go on about how stupid this, but let’s just leave it at stating the obvious. Most jobs in restaurants were never designed to be long term careers. They are tailor made for the young and mobile.
Brodeur, however, wants to blame it all on men. (Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah … all over the Seattle newspapers on a daily basis). I guess she’d like to have some sort of affirmative action program for overweight and angry butch waitresses pushing fifty and a law forcing the young attractive waitresses to share their tips.
And then there is another whinny column by Susan Paynter of the Seattle PI complaining about a woman tutor loosing her job in a Seattle school. Odd that Paynter and the rest of the preaching simpletons of Seattle's media had nothing to say about the teacher who was transferred out of a Seattle public school because he was charged with harrassing the Principal. Apparently, pointing out contaminated water coming out of fountains that children drink from in the school is now harrassment. Well, that is as long as the one doing the pointing is a male and the Principal is a female.
With the space and the eyes they have available, newspapers in Seattle could do so much more, especially for their most loyal readership: men. Instead, they will continue down their path to oblivion because, well, it’s the politically correct thing to do.
You would think that the Seattle PI and the Seattle Times would have already caught a clue. Everyone knows .....
that their readership and circulation is in decline. Yet, these newspapers exhibit customer focus and sensitivity that makes the big airlines look good. After all, do you know of any other business that deliberately alienates its largest customer segment?
In the case of newspapers, the largest customer segment is male. There is and has been plenty of hand wringing about this fact. Of course, any Women Studies madrassa graduate would tell you that this is simply because newspapers are part of the larger patriarchal conspiracy they are so paranoid about. But, really, newspapers are just a format that is better suited to men, while women, like it or not, prefer other formats.
They say the problem is that newspapers are run by men who stereotype women when they try to write for them. I’d say that is probably true, but for the opposite reason than, say, Maureen Dowd would give. Newspapers tend to hire Women Studies madrassa graduates when they are looking for female reporters. These women are obsessed with painting women as victims. Problem is, far left feminists are hardly the “voice” of women in the country (even though they scream the loudest). Anyway, who wants to read about what a victim they are every single day? Worse, what guy wants to read about how they are victimizers every day?
So, what do the Seattle newspapers do? They turn around and alienate men as often and as vehemently as they can. That would be like the NFL alienating beer drinkers or the Oxygen network running nightly programming about bitchy women with PMS.
As usual, amateur journalist extraordinaire Nicole Brodeur provides the perfect example. Her recent column is all full of angst over the fact that restaurants prefer young and attractive women (and men for that matter) to wait on tables and behind the bar. Oh, and the larger societal problem is that ugly waitresses get tipped a lot less than attractive young waitresses.
Brodeur defines an entirely new victim group: old unattractive women that are trying to make it as cocktail waitresses. I could go on about how stupid this, but let’s just leave it at stating the obvious. Most jobs in restaurants were never designed to be long term careers. They are tailor made for the young and mobile.
Brodeur, however, wants to blame it all on men. (Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah … all over the Seattle newspapers on a daily basis). I guess she’d like to have some sort of affirmative action program for overweight and angry butch waitresses pushing fifty and a law forcing the young attractive waitresses to share their tips.
And then there is another whinny column by Susan Paynter of the Seattle PI complaining about a woman tutor loosing her job in a Seattle school. Odd that Paynter and the rest of the preaching simpletons of Seattle's media had nothing to say about the teacher who was transferred out of a Seattle public school because he was charged with harrassing the Principal. Apparently, pointing out contaminated water coming out of fountains that children drink from in the school is now harrassment. Well, that is as long as the one doing the pointing is a male and the Principal is a female.
With the space and the eyes they have available, newspapers in Seattle could do so much more, especially for their most loyal readership: men. Instead, they will continue down their path to oblivion because, well, it’s the politically correct thing to do.
posted by Iguana at 1:53 AM
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