In an effort to cut costs newspapers are letting their film critics go and replacing them with canned wire-service stories.  One critic wonders if communities are losing a local voice in favor of a cheaper way to do business.  I agree with the critic to an extent.  I don’t mind they are losing the high-paid film critics, but I think replacing them with canned stories will not win them new subscribers.  A better option would be to open reviews of all kinds (movies, books, food, etc.) to their local readers and allow them the opportunity to express an opinion.  Set up a blog on their web sites and allow everyday citizens to participate in the newspapers.  Heck, they could even publish some of them in the print edition if the quality is good.  Giving the citizens they supposedly serve a chance to participate would do more to bring in subscribers than firing critics and replacing them with canned wire stories.  Hell, I wouldn’t stop their.  Open up their papers so subscribers can participate in most aspects of the paper:  opinion, news stories, investigative reporting and watch the subscriptions roll in.

You know, Fox News is just about pathetic these days.  Now, they’re using an animated film, Happy Feet, to attack Hollywood for promoting the heinous Liberal agenda of environmentalism.  God forbid, we teach children to take care of planet Earth.  How dare we teach them such a subversive and un-Christian ethic.  Damn Hollywood to hell!