October 30, 2009

Quoth the Newspaper Maven, “Nevermore”

Detail of Flickr photo by D. Ross Cameron; original viewable <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/drosscameron/4042305150/in/set-72157622657051080/" target="_blank">here</a>.

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Spotted outside a mystery house in Alameda, California, where local news reporters dwell, pondering their dim fates, as apparitions of former colleagues float despairingly in a fog of alcohol and memories, searching for their shrunken and canceled beats; cursing Craigslist, the blogosphere, consolidation, leveraged CEOs, shareholder expectations—all those things that would not kindly stop for the good people who put good stories on paper, nor yield to the needs of a civil democracy, but rather stumble forward: Relentless. Undead. Bloodsuckers and zombies. Happy Halloween!

(You can’t tell from the photo, but the hand extending up from the grave is clutching a copy of Dean Singleton‘s Oakland Tribune.)

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