• Dallas Business Journal, Tuesday, December 6, 2005 11:15 AM

"Who else devotes life-force energy to promoting its competition?" asks the Dallas Business Journal's Huntley Patton, who argues that newspapers all across America must stop covering television shows and television celebrities with such obvious glee. Indeed, why waste so much ink on movie stars and recording artists? "People who prefer television simply watch more television--they don't and won't read newspapers. Why chase them?" bleats Patton, who joins an increasingly loud chorus of newspaper guys who believe their industry is hurting because, in one way or another, it's been misguided. "Papers should stick to local information and original reporting.  That's what they're good at. And that's where they do the most good," Patton says in his column.  His view may be extreme--even The New York Times covers celebs and celeb news, and it includes a sort of gossip column these days--but it illustrated the depth of frustration among what once were called ink-stained wretches. They are wretches no more. Also true is that many of them are employed no more.

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