I am sad to post this

People just don’t trust newspapers any more.

36% percent think they get the facts straight, down from 54% in mid-1989.

23% find factual errors at least once a week.

35% see spelling or grammar errors more than once a week. That one really hurts, but I see it in today’s BJ. People like Hal Fry and Art Cullison were gatekeepers for those areas during my time at Ol’ Blue Walls.

Another sad sign: Among those who witnessed a story, but were not a part of it, 51% said the article was inaccurate. Which makes them question stories they didn’t witness.

Reporters and editors blame the “rush to deadline,” which always has been there; overworked and overstaffed, which makes sense when the BJ went from 250 in my time there to 60 today; and inattention, carelessness, inexperience, poor knowledge and bad editing and reporting.

Slashing newsroom staffs contributed mightily to the final reason. I feel most for those who were there when JSK was in his corner office, because they know best the difference between then and now.

This is not an attack on the current staff, who struggle mightily against tremendous odds dumped on them by a management that didn’t see the Internet impact coming until it was too late.

As usual, the privates pay for the generals’ mistakes.