Under the Paperweight, April 5-11, 2009 1


Free articles and news stories filed under the Paperweight last week focused on recognition of the Armenian genocide and the newspaper industry’s struggle to stay in business. The two stories have a direct link.

The overwhelming amount of coverage on the Armenian massacres published from 1915 on in major U.S. newspapers is an absurd burden for Turkish-sponsored revisionists. According to Peter Balakian, in The Burning Tigris:

Week after week, from 1915 on, the New York Times used terms describing what would later be defined as genocide: “systematic,” “deliberate,” “authorized,” “organized by government,” “systematic race extermination.” The Times coverage makes it clear that the reports by American and European diplomats and missionaries, neutral bystanders, and massacre survivors all corroborated that the slaughter and deportation of the Armenians was a well-organized, government-planned operation, aimed at exterminating a race of people.

To this day, citizens everywhere benefit when powers that be are presented with such absurd burdens.

Those that would like to rewrite history, or to enforce their own agenda by keeping facts from coming to light, may not be bothered by the troubles facing the newspaper industry. The rest of us, however, should be concerned.

The word that began this post is one part of the problem. Information isn’t really free and we will get what we pay for. The other part of the problem is sorting out a new business model for journalism, fighting for market share and information channels with players like Google, and standing out with relevant content in increasingly crowded public forums.


One thought on “Under the Paperweight, April 5-11, 2009

Comments are closed.