 42 million Americans are illiterate |
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 Oct 11 2009, 06:23 AM
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 One dollar, one vote.  Group: CDN Contributing Members Posts: 17,702 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Northern Lower Member No.: 79 Current Sled: Polaris  |
Newspaper Decline Traced To Widespread Illiteracy
By Sherwood Ross Last updated: October 9th, 2009 (The Intelligence Daily) -- One reason for the decline of newspaper circulation is that 42 million Americans are illiterate and roughly 50 million more are semi-literate, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Christopher Hedges says. What’s more, he adds, 80 percent of U.S. households last year did not buy a book. “The rates of illiteracy or semi-literacy---meaning people reading at a fourth or fifth grade level---now comprise one-third of the United States,” says Hedges, “and even those who are technically literate opt into a system where they get most of their information through images---images which are of course skillfully manipulated.” Hedges, a former war correspondent for The New York Times, is quoted in “News Media in Crisis,”(Doukathsan) as saying, “With the decline in newspapers and the decline of a literature culture, American society “is essentially walking into a world of moral nihilism, where we no longer embrace values.” Newspaper readership has also fallen off because “we have a large, sustained, well-funded set of people out there who attack honest reporting” and who have created “a belief that the news is not to be trusted,” adds David Cay Johnston, like Hedges a former New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner. Robert Rosenthal, former editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer and director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, in Berkeley, Calif., said, “I think we all can agree that there is not simply a serious problem, there’s a total crisis, and a disintegration certainly of newspapers and media as we’ve known (them) in our lifetimes.” From a high of 60,000 newsroom reporters, the number of professional journalists has dwindled to about 50,000, and several hundred newspapers have closed their doors, said Benjamin Compaine, of the Innovation International Media Consulting Group and author of the book “Who Owns The Media?” Newspapers lost 42 percent of their value during the 2006-07 period, added Rick Edmonds, media analyst for the Poynter Institute of St. Petersburg, Fla., “and then 83 per cent of their remaining value in 2008… We have only one publicly traded newspaper company at higher than $5 a share (The Washington Post) right now, which is mainly valued for its Kaplan Education subsidiary.” As for the number of working journalists, Edmonds put the figure this year at 47,000 and predicted “(It’s) going to get quite a lot worse (and) is getting worse right now.” He said “there (are) drastic reductions in the space allocated to news. Metro papers, which have the worst of it, are in many cases getting rid of their business sections, their freestanding feature display pages. A lot of readers say, ‘There’s nothing to read in the paper anymore.’” Hedges said, “What we’re seeing is not just the death of newsprint or the death of print, but the rise in corporate hands of essentially the obliteration and destruction of our open society. Virtually everything that we see, read, and hear is now controlled by roughly eight corporations,” he said, among them Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Viacom, General Electric, and Disney. Disney, for example, owns ABC Television Network and ESPN besides Disney Channel and Radio Disney. “They look at their readers as clients. These readers---like all clients which are being sold products by corporations---have to be made happy. They have to be catered to, and the idea that news will be delivered which makes people unsettled or uncomfortable is an anathema to people whose goals are profit,” Hedges said. Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored, which trains students about defending free press rights, said only five percent of young persons under 30 read a newspaper because “they don’t see anything relevant to their lives.” Phillips went on to say that at the Media Reform Conference held in Minneapolis in June, 2008, a survey of 376 persons selected at random were asked their views about media today. “Ninety-nine percent agreed with the statement that corporate media has failed to keep the American people informed on important issues facing the nation. We get almost unanimous agreement on that point.” http://www.inteldaily.com/news/173/ARTICLE...2009-10-09.html -------------------- "It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."
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Oct 11 2009, 07:39 AM
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 Just another Apeman  Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 22,170 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Blue Collar Anoka Member No.: 21 |
Weird.
Same number have no health insurance. Maybe they just cant read the policy? -------------------- Love your country and your countrymen, not your government....
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Oct 11 2009, 08:15 AM
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 I got my shutta shades on  Group: Members Posts: 5,131 Joined: 11-May 08 From: Soo Mi Member No.: 200 Current Sled: 1 Japanese Tank |
QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 11 2009, 08:39 AM)  Weird. Same number have no health insurance. Maybe they just cant read the policy?  I think you just made the connection Don.
-------------------- Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson "If you can't read this...Thank Teacher Unions" A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul. – George Bernard Shaw |
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Oct 11 2009, 08:29 AM
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 6,070 Joined: 9-May 08 From: UP NORD Member No.: 36 Current Sled: 07 Z1 |
QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 11 2009, 08:39 AM) Weird. Same number have no health insurance. Maybe they just cant read the policy? Can't read, can't get a decent job, can't get health insurance. Seems to be pretty close, except I bet alot are on welfare and get free coverage. |
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Oct 11 2009, 08:29 AM
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 I'm the CE butter knife Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 13,524 Joined: 10-May 08 From: Mitchell, SD Member No.: 152 Current Sled: 2006 Summit 144" |
I think the ratio is higher here on FS.
 Neal -------------------- Rejoice in your wife all your life. Let her breasts satisfy you.
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Oct 11 2009, 08:30 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 2,173 Joined: 14-May 08 From: NH Member No.: 483 Current Sled: '03 rev 440 |
Well that explains how Obama won!
-------------------- "Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves". Ronald Reagan Oct 27, 1964
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Oct 11 2009, 08:30 AM
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#7
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Just another Apeman Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 22,170 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Blue Collar Anoka Member No.: 21 |
QUOTE (zoso @ Oct 11 2009, 08:29 AM) Can't read, can't get a decent job, can't get health insurance. Seems to be pretty close, except I bet alot are on welfare and get free coverage. Sure am glad public education is sooooo wellllll runnnnn! LLS will be along to tell us why 41 million Americans are illiterate. Cant wait to hear THIS excuse. -------------------- Love your country and your countrymen, not your government....
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Oct 11 2009, 08:38 AM
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 FS CE NA Asshole of the Year 2009 Group: CDN Contributing Members Posts: 24,579 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Ontario Member No.: 6 Current Sled: 05 440X/800PTek |
QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 11 2009, 09:30 AM) Sure am glad public education is sooooo wellllll runnnnn! LLS will be along to tell us why 41 million Americans are illiterate. Cant wait to hear THIS excuse. I'm surprised you haven't blamed the niggers yet. -------------------- QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 29 2009, 08:38 AM) Listen, I am so much smarter than RR that it isn't really even funny. |
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Oct 11 2009, 08:39 AM
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#9
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Just another Apeman Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 22,170 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Blue Collar Anoka Member No.: 21 |
QUOTE (ICEMAN! @ Oct 11 2009, 08:38 AM) I'm surprised you haven't blamed the niggers yet. I am surprised you haven't freed the ones you own yet. -------------------- Love your country and your countrymen, not your government....
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Oct 11 2009, 08:39 AM
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#10
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FS CE NA Asshole of the Year 2009 Group: CDN Contributing Members Posts: 24,579 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Ontario Member No.: 6 Current Sled: 05 440X/800PTek |
QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 11 2009, 09:39 AM) I am surprised you haven't freed the ones you own yet. Huh? -------------------- QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 29 2009, 08:38 AM) Listen, I am so much smarter than RR that it isn't really even funny. |
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Oct 11 2009, 08:46 AM
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#11
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Just another Apeman Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 22,170 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Blue Collar Anoka Member No.: 21 |
QUOTE (ICEMAN! @ Oct 11 2009, 08:38 AM) I'm surprised you haven't blamed the niggers yet. Huh? -------------------- Love your country and your countrymen, not your government....
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Oct 11 2009, 08:49 AM
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 Member Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 3,869 Joined: 12-May 08 From: Northeast Member No.: 301 Current Sled: Chrysler Snorunner |
I'm surprised no one has blamed Bush and the right. Its always THEIR fault for this countrys mishaps.. Just ask the kanooks and liberal left in here..
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Oct 11 2009, 08:52 AM
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#13
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FS CE NA Asshole of the Year 2009 Group: CDN Contributing Members Posts: 24,579 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Ontario Member No.: 6 Current Sled: 05 440X/800PTek |
QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 11 2009, 09:46 AM) Huh? You know you want to. 
-------------------- QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 29 2009, 08:38 AM) Listen, I am so much smarter than RR that it isn't really even funny. |
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Oct 11 2009, 08:57 AM
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#14
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Just another Apeman Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 22,170 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Blue Collar Anoka Member No.: 21 |
QUOTE (ICEMAN! @ Oct 11 2009, 08:52 AM) You know you want to. Wait till LLS gets here. Lets see who he blames. He is the expert on public education. -------------------- Love your country and your countrymen, not your government....
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Oct 11 2009, 08:57 AM
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#15
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 4,048 Joined: 17-November 08 From: Ma/CT border Member No.: 1,992 Current Sled: 2003 Firecat 700 efi SP |
ICEMAN bank his spitfire and dives in for anouther racist straifing run on Don. boring.
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Oct 11 2009, 09:26 AM
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 No one is perfect, and I'll let you know it Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 14,664 Joined: 9-May 08 From: Maine Member No.: 4 Current Sled: Vec LTX |
I thought it was because most papers suck.
-------------------- The left poisoned the well by their incessant hatred of George W. Bush and now they wonder why they can’t get a fresh drink.
QUOTE (Snake @ Sep 6 2009, 12:52 AM) Oh, I'm an asshole. Actually, I think I am one of the biggest assholes I know. |
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Oct 11 2009, 09:55 AM
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 Always Right Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 12,414 Joined: 10-May 08 From: MN Member No.: 168 Current Sled: Poo 500 XCSP |
Nothing loses more money in media than liberal biased BS. 'Air America' like content in any media has the same result.
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Oct 11 2009, 10:00 AM
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#18
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 Big Daddy Kane Group: USA Contributing Members Posts: 3,240 Joined: 13-May 08 From: Durkamajerkastan Member No.: 434 Current Sled: snowmobiling is a crutch. |
QUOTE (CRMERC @ Oct 11 2009, 09:57 AM) ICEMAN bank his spitfire and dives in for anouther racist straifing run on Don. boring. I liked that. Good use of words...  True. Ignorance and stupidity breeds hatred, could explain why Ice is so angry all the time. -------------------- Out of the night that covers me,----------------Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,--------------Looms but the Horror of the shade I thank whatever gods may be-----------------And yet the menace of the years For my unconquerable soul.--------------------Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. In the fell clutch of circumstance---------------It matters not how strait the gate, I have not winced nor cried aloud.-------------How charged with punishments the scroll, Under the bludgeonings of chance-------------For I am the master of my fate My head is bloody, but unbowed---------------I am the captain of my soul. |
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Oct 11 2009, 10:17 AM
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#19
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Member Group: Members Posts: 2,064 Joined: 12-May 08 From: MI Member No.: 270 Current Sled: 07 Attak GT |
While I don't doubt the illiteracy rate, I was under the impression that newspapers are in decline due to news being available via the internet for free.
Makes sense to me, why waste the resources of paper, printing, and delivery? QUOTE (ICEMAN! @ Oct 11 2009, 09:38 AM) I'm surprised you haven't blamed the niggers yet. Black children in school are bullied if they behave and try to do well, they are accused of "wanting to be white". -------------------- QUOTE (Oldtimer @ Nov 6 2008, 09:21 AM) Fuck off. The Vette is cooler than Jess Alba covered in whipped cream and 100 dollar bills, the Subaru you drive is queer as Boy George at Micheal Jackson's pool party. End of story. Now, run along and play, you bother us men. |
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Oct 11 2009, 10:59 AM
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#20
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 The best way to defeat your enemy is from within. Atta boy Brett Group: Members Posts: 14,213 Joined: 10-May 08 From: The great "Blue" state of WI Member No.: 182 Current Sled: Sold them all! |
QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 11 2009, 08:57 AM) Wait till LLS gets here. Lets see who he blames. He is the expert on public education. More so than you are. It's all there if the kids want it, it starts at home. -------------------- QUOTE (huizenga @ Apr 1 2008, 10:19 AM) Yes. What I mean is that I dont think most blacks have the same mental capacity for "learned" thought in the way that we test for it. RE: History, English, Math or IQ even. QUOTE (Huizenga @ Oct 9 2009, 06:59 AM) Well, I do. If you CANNOT come up with a good reason as to WHY he won it, then it has to be because he is black. |
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