What if newspapers didn't exist?

With the piss poor shape that the media now finds itself in (largely of its own making but that’s for another day) TJ Sullivan at the LA Observer asks what things would be like with no press.

It's time to do something drastic.

It's time to do more than join another Facebook pledge group, or promote a campaign like National Buy A Newspaper Day, or to purchase some overpriced t-shirts emblazoned with the message "Save a journalist, buy a newspaper."

Now is the time for newspapers to do something proactive; time for them to demonstrate what life would be like without them.

It's time for every daily newspaper in the United States, in cooperation with the Associated Press, to shut down their free Web sites for one week.

Yes. Shut it down. Blank screen. Nothing.

Heavens no, whatever will we do!

Somehow, I don’t think that TJ really grasps the concept of how the internet works.

Guys like TJ want to save the newspapers for the same reason that tailors rioted and destroyed a factory full of sewing machines in St Etienne in 1838. He is afraid that this mew liberating technology might not turn out to be such a good deal for him in the long run as his current gig is.

Oh, sure TJ loves the fact that unlike 20 years ago, people all over the world now know what he is listening to on his Ipod, or which recent episode of the Daily Show prompted him to paint the sink with his man hose thinking of John Stewart. But just like TJ, every other asshole on the planet has access to the megaphone.

Unlike the old days where TJ and all his peers could count on a comfortable low six figure life inside the media industry, writing the same old cliché filled pieces of left wing gospel, news consumers now find themselves with an explosion of high quality readily accessible information. The best part about this information is that although they are amature writers, they are professional experts.

For example, what would you rather listen to

1. A combat and Special Forces veteran write about Iraq or a graduate of Smith College/Columbia write about Iraq?

2. A retired nuclear engineer with 40 years in the business write about nuclear power or a comparative literature major from Brown write about nuclear power?

3. A CPA write about Sarbanes Oxley and what it means or a reporter who 6 weeks ago was doing the police beat write about Sarbanes Oxley?

And its not to take away from what they do; good writing and how one conveys thoughts and ideas is just as important a skill, but it seems that they are far more common in the MSM than real honest to goodness expert in the fields.

Its cute that he mentioned Thomas Jefferson as many times in the article as he did. Cute because I don’t think that Jefferson would be to thrilled with the post-modern crypto collectivism and rampant identity politics that passes for journalistic excellence these days and especially super duper cute considering this quote from Jefferson

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
-Thomas Jefferson

But here’s another thought to ponder, especially for that most noble of creatures: the jet setting, eco-friendly, hypocritical, literati/glitterati set: what could we do without more for a week, coal fired power plants or newspapers?

YOU make the call.