🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <18DEC199207413863@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov> packer@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer) writes:
  References: <11DEC199208042064@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov> <1992Dec17.210911.4130@sco.com>
   Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 11:41:00 GMT

   In article <1992Dec17.210911.4130@sco.com>, erics@sco.COM (eric smith) writes...
   >I think the only importance newspapers place on stories is
   >how many papers they will sell.



   It's more complicated than this. When a newspaper has a steady and
   loyal audience, the editors have the freedom to pursue a second-order
   agenda beyond just bringing in more readers. The exact nature of
   the this agenda will depend on the paper's audience. For the
   Times, it might be imparting historical awareness. For a
   tabloid, it might be combatting racism. The second-order agenda,
   I suspect, is what attracts most journalists to the profession,
   and makes the print media, at least, the center of missionary
   activity in our society, rather than religious institutions.

In the case of the New York Times, the editors of different parts of
the paper are allowed to pursue their own ideological agendas to
a considerable extent.  The editor of the Tuesday science section has
a very strong green agenda and isn't anywhere near so interested
in the physical sciences.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.