Well, Bunkie, it was Will Rogers, as quoted in The New York Times, September 30, 1923 (according to sources).

What became Rogers’ trademark quip has become famous, probably because of its simplicity and because millions of Americans could say the same, particularly in the 20th century before television news — as a poor journalistic cousin — became a main source of news and information.

Of course, things are never as simple as they seem, and the entire Times quote probably was “All I know is what I read in the newspapers and see with my own eyes as I wander from hither to thither.” Which, on reflection, makes more sense as something said by the eminently sensible Rogers.

Most people who have been paying attention know that in addition to television news’s popularity, there’s been a world of things negatively affecting America’s newspapers in the 85-plus years since Rogers’ self-deprecating and mildly sarcastic remark concerning newspapers and their keeping people informed — or not — was in The Times. They include declining readership because of television news — and now the Internet — and an overall decline in Americans reading anything, for that matter.

In recent years, paid subscriptions and advertising revenue have fallen and basic costs have increased. And many newspapers, now owned by big national chains whose corporate masters too often are much more interested in a fat bottom line than in good journalism, have become near-empty shells of what they once were. Now, George W. Bush and the Republicans’ Great Recession have pushed the newspaper industry in general into an Edgar Allen Poe-style vortex, with many newspapers facing House of Usher-style ruination.

Americans who think we can do without newspapers apparently don’t seem to realize that real reporting about what is going on that affects them has its roots in newspaper reporting — that television news generally tags along after the newspaper watchdog — that so-called Internet news (aside from newspapers’ websites) mostly picks up scraps of what the newspaper watchdogs dig up — that most local and state news of consequence originates with newspapers — that newspapers have been and will continue to be the principal watchdogs that smell out and dig up and confront excesses and corruption and misfeasance and malfeasance in business and industry and government and other segments of society.

What Thomas Jefferson said is as true today as it was more than 200 years ago.

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.”

Maybe I can help him add up the score.

We killed more of them than they killed of us. Why not call that a win? There could be a problem though. How many killed Iraqi’s count as one killed American? And does civilian casualties count? Since about 65% of the dead Iraqi’s are women and children how does that fit into the equation? And I guess all this killing has to count after the invasion because they didn’t kill any of us before we invaded. I’ll ask Rush, you know he’ll have an answer. Possibly he can blame the Democrats (Pinko Liberals in Rush talk). That’s the tone of his bark lately.

We dropped more bombs on them than they did on us. Now that’s an easy one to prove, since they didn’t have an air force, well I guess they couldn’t have dropped any. We sure got them beat to hell on that one. That makes it two to nothing.

Can we count that we destroyed their Weapons of Mass Destruction? Does the fact that they didn’t have any to begin with change the equation? Maybe Rush can convince everyone that just because we haven’t found them in six years doesn’t really mean they are not there – buried somewhere under the sands. He’s got the ditto heads believing it, why not the rest of us. Three to nothing.

And finally Regime change. Won that too. Rush won’t admit that the Regime change we just had came as a result of the immoral war we foisted on the Iraqis. But wait, there’s a challenge that I just heard from back yonder somewhere. There I heard it again. Some feller is questioning how we can count Regime change since Saddam offered to go into exile a couple of weeks before the invasion? Can we count a Regime change when it wasn’t necessary? Rush says don’t believe it if it doesn’t come from the EIB network. Makes sense to me. Would Rush lie?

So we won the War. At least somebody did. The War Industry sure did. Since the war is going to cost us taxpayers about $3 Trillion (but not the War Industry) and since the Economy went into a tank, and since Bush scrubbed many of our Constitutional rights, and since our everyday lives are spied on, and since we accept torture as a practice, and since we lost more than 4100 souls, and since we have adopted the use of Mercenaries to replace our National Army, and since we have more than 30,000 permanently scarred injured soldiers, and since we have lost our moral standing in the world, do these things count against us?

If I give Regime change a point, then that makes four for wining the war. But if I count the negatives above, I count nine against. Did we really lose the war by a score of 9-4? If we won the war, just what is it that we won. Rush? Somebody? Anybody?

By the way Rush, is it really over. Bite my lying tongue? Sorry Rush I should have know better than to question the great blimp. Oh yeah Rush, would you tell Hannity I said hello?

I have had the best sleep for over three months. My house is paid off, my kids are healthy, I am unable to go back to work due to medical conditions. I have been watching all the propaganda on T.V and laugh.

I traveled all over the world (as a U.S Marine) and enjoyed the peaceful travels absorbing foreign cultures, people and history. I am ashamed that the media elites (FCC controlled) lie to everyone.

They lie about crime, they lie about events, they lie about education, they lie about work, they lie…..They want you to forget what you learned today in exchange for a lie. They cheat, steal and manipulate events which circulate around the almighty dollar.

As long as they keep you busy than they will continue to feed off your honesty, your abilities, your ideas and your drive. If itwere not for suits/ties and proper grooming I would see them as nothing more than thigs and punks who are power hungry to control your thoughts.

I will sleep in tomorrow while the truth is being coveted with propaganda.

The only international reporters in Gaza now who can show what is actually happening there are the ones from Al Jazeera.

Under pressure from the Bush administration, the major cable providers in the US have not offered Al Jazeera in the US. The number of communities that have it in their available cable offerings can be counted on one or at most two hands.

But you can watch Al Jazeera’s English channel’s live feed free by downloading Livestation, a program that also offers the BBC, Deutschewelle (Germany) and French TV.

Incidentally, as I watched a young woman from Al Jazeera, dressed in a flak jacket prominently labeled “PRESS” and wearing a military helmet, gingerly walk towards the scene of an Israeli massacre of a Gaza family, doing her standup into the mike as she walked, I was struck by the shamelessness of our own corporate media.

Does anyone think that if Wolf Blitzer or Brian Williams took a network helicopter and announced to the Israeli government that they were flying into Gaza, they would be shot down? Of course not! It would be the end of US support for Israel.

They’d be able to fly in at will and report on what is happening. So why aren’t they doing it? It can’t be fear. At least not fear of the IDF. Fear of criticism here at home maybe, for being too even-handed on this story?