Re:Mass media... (Score 1)

Mmmm, okay. There are
two reasons for "news
lag" in a paper - tech
and editorial.

Here's an example of lag
viz technology. Recall
the guy who got the
perfect score in Pac-
Man? That was just
in my local (100k
net paid circulation)
paper. It was in the
Wall Street Journal
on Thursday or Friday.
It was posted in Slash-
dot several days earlier.

The recent coverage of
the RIAA strongarm tactics
in the recording industry
is an example of editorial
lag. There's only so much
that can be put in a news-
paper. And I hate to say
this, but most newspapers
are little better than a
fax machine with a copier.
Despite the romantic notions
of "breaking a story", most
editors just wanna print the
kind of stories - or the
same exact stories - that
they see in other papers.
And the only reason the MP3
stories are getting lineage
is because the RIAA went into
hysterics about it like a
shrieking schoolgirl. Most
everyone knows the music
industry is a bullying and
treacherous racket, but such
coverage only became news-
worthy with the advent of
an alternative.

=13=