It was reported on this Blog a few days ago that Freedom Communications, the parent company of Orange County’s Register newspaper, was likely to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Today’s (September 2) edition of the Register reports that has now happened (“Register owner files for bankruptcy protection”, Business section).
The article explains that the revenue from Freedom’s various media operations, including the Register, is inadequate to cover operation expenses and make required payments on debt. In what has to be the best example of “spin” to appear in print in a long time the article quotes unnamed “Executives” at both Freedom and the Register as saying that “both organizations are profitable, they just aren’t making enough money to service the current debt.”
Hello? If required monthly outflow exceeds income, how can someone say a business is profitable? Talk about spin.
I can hear it now – many homeowners with huge mortgage payments that can’t be made by families anymore because one of the home’s wage earners los their job, or received a pay cut, saying “we still have good income, it is just that we can’t service our mortgage debt anymore.”
Stop the spin! Freedom, you and therefore the enterprises you own are collectively unprofitable. You have taken steps, as many in America are doing these days, to legally default on some of your debt in order to survive, at least for a while. If your organization was profitable filing for bankruptcy protection would not have happened. That is no spin.
Apparently paying your debts isn’t part of the Libertarian philosophy – is that why Art converted? – probably not.
Maybe I can pay the Register’s delivery invoice with my freshly printed stock? – again, probably not.
Newspaper??? Newspaper??? Hmmm, Oh yeah! I know what that is! It is that thing that charges me to get the day old news, that I jave already read on the newswires on the the internet!(and gets my hands dirty)
Next time you pick up the Register, especially the front page on a Sunday, take a look at each story facing you and assess if you are seeing information that is really current news, like something that happened in the last 24-48 hours, or if you are seeing feature or “human interest” stories that really are not news. It has been my observation that we are getting less news and more of these kinds of stories that can be printed most any time and still be “current”. It is sad to see current news disappearing to be replaced by “filler stories” like that in what is supposed to be a newspaper (with the word news emphasized). The Register is not alone in this trend – it is what to me perhaps best illustrates the death spiral of the newspaper business – try to fill the pages with a reasonable volume of print even when it is not news so we can sell advertising space and fool the customer into believing they have purchased a newspaper. Of course, I remember when the newspaper was delivered by a neighborhood kid on a bike too – so I am probably way out of touch with modern newspaper business thinking. But, there are today quite a few adults out there who earned their first real money in life doing a paper route – an opportunity now lost.
“Child-labor laws were and are a blow against the freedom to work and a boost in government authority over the family.”
I want more “children” working!
Do you?
Think about it…how many major players in business and politics started out in life [as I did, at the tender age of ten, applying in a Sears suit and tie} as a carrier for a local newspaper [Daily Pilot]? Answer: MANY!
I’m now 54 years young…been working nearly every day of my life since 10, TOTALLY integrated into the machinations of business and customer service, and ALL BECAUSE I could get jobs without government “protection”. Hey, at 12, I was working at a local wine store, stocking product, sweeping floors, cleaning the restroom, AND doing the yardwork/landscaping for $1 an hour [1967]. I LOVED doing the work and earning that BIG money! SHAME on the politidiots who chose to deny future children the right to work whenever and wherever they choose.
I’ve been a teacher for over three decades. I’ve also worked for years as a youth pastor. I can tell you from experience and observation that the “child labor laws” have been a HUGE DISservice to the children and adults of America!
Amen 54- I have you beat, In about 88 I was underage, so I got the”conditional 2 hour” work permit, and had a friend of mine…….adjust….the paperwork so I could work at Mc Donalds