Howdy "Hate Bloggers,"

So, it's funny, all of the discussions we've been having about when will the Rag fold, will it go under soon, blah blah, I picked up a free hard copy of the Rag (you'll never get a plug nickel out of me, Ragman!) and wow.

What a stinkfest.

Forget the chatter about the rag folding, I read this paper and came to the conclusion that the Rag has essentially already folded and its only a matter of time before Wareham is ragless altogether.

Here's the thing.  There's barely any news in it.

Let's do a little Rag Review -

The main big headlining story is the Ragman's bitchfest over some poor schmuck that wrote a letter to local business.  We get it, Ragman.  You hate Bob Thompson.  Give the guy a break.  He's probably some schmuck that didn't realize the amount of Ragman vengeance you bring down on yourself if you write a lousy letter.  You should thank Bob for writing it in the first place.  Without it, what would your main story have been?  A column on the dramatic rise in leather jacket prices because of the cow famine in Argentina?

There are only a couple actual "news" (and I use that term loosely) stories written by actual Rag staff.

The front pager by the Cat Lady is (and no bias here) - "It's Oceanside Drive by a landslide!"  Jesus, Ragman, what subtlety.  Why not just go ahead at that point and headline it "Hooray Brucey, we did it!" 

Then there's another one by the Cat Lady about the Selectmen and Fin Com teaming up, and apparently Richard Paulsen is now the greatest thing since sliced bread if you read the Cat Lady Column.  Netflixize the library?  Yeah, let's just mail that 70 pound Atlas around town for $50 shipping cost every time somebody needs to look up the capital of Zimbabwe.  Let's teach the kids Mandarin Chinese, because they're going to come across so many Mandarins in their lifetimes.

Now, here's the interesting part.  Check out page 4 and page 6.  There's three items that, in the Standard Times and the Courier, were actually given big story treatment.  They are worthy of big stories.  So it's quite odd that the Ragman only devotes a small paragraph or two to each.

First, "Man Found with Bogus Bills."  Umm, it's a little more than that.  The police uncovered a counterfeiting operation that was going on out of a trailer.  Counterfeit bills were going around town.  In a two month investigation, the coppers were able to investigate and backtrack where the fake money was coming from.

Why does the Rag only give it a little paragraph?  There's the Ragman, the Catlady, McLeod, Andrea Smith, and they have some Adam Silva dude....with a staff of 5 people they couldn't have put together an actual story with quotes about an investigation that cracked a counterfitting operation? 

Wow, that is just really sad.  Note the Ragman says in the story, "According to reports..."  What reports, Ragman?  Didn't you jeered Lt. Wallace for not giving you info?  I certainly hope the Ragman isn't cultivating news from other papers....oh how awful that would be!  Nooo, surely the Ragman wouldn't do such a thing.

There was also a paragraph about a man killed in a car crash.  The other papers had actual stories on that.  That's a newsworthy event.

Then on page 6 there's a paragraph about Wareham Community Television coming to the Old Town Hall building on Main Street.  The other papers treated that as news, and it is news for residents to have access to a local tv station.  I'm thinking about starting my own show myself called "The What I Think About Wareham Town Government Power Hour" and it will pretty much every week be a photograph of my middle finger with different hit music tunes playing in the background for an entire hour.

Anyway, it's just pretty sad that these three big stories were relegated to three paragraph sized items.  Maybe the Ragman can get those counterfitters to print him up some funny money to pay the Cat Lady with.  Get that crackerjack ace reporting staff to help you get some news.

Bottomline, if you check out a hard copy rag - you'll see the debate isn't when the Rag will fold, it's now when will the Ragman realize it's already folded?

Last edited by Hamatron5000 (2008-12-05 13:54:42)