Ex-half-term Gov. Sarah Palin has a problem. She has a problem admitting that she does not know everything — and that will ultimately lead to her collapse.

Her unfounded arrogance has gotten her into more trouble and instead of simply acknowledging her mistake, she did what she always does — blame the media.  And guess what — except for the dwindling percentage of her far right-wing supporters who hang on her every word. She got called out again and then predictably cried victim, again.

Last week, the former Republican vice presidential hopeful tweeted:

Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate

Unfortunately refudiate is not a word, despite the fact she said it on FOX’s “Hanity” as well as in the tweet she took down after folks began to criticize her.

She then reworked the same tweet three times, according to a report (complete with screen captures) published on Gawker until she arrived at a defensive tweet published on July 18:

“Refudiate,” “misunderestimate,” “wee-wee’d up.” English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it.”

If Palin had simply acknowledged her mistake, she would not have received the wide-scale attention that she did — and could have likely avoided the attention similar to what she suffered when she couldn’t define the Bush Doctrine, or offer the name of a newspaper she reads regularly during relatively easy interviews on the presidential campaign trail two years ago.

Perhaps, if the former governor was known for her linguistic abilities, or background in the language, she would have been able to explain her gaffe away as she did — but she’s just the opposite. The image that she created for herself is that of a rural soccer mom, not an English literary scholar.

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‘I don’t subscribe to newspapers’

It seems that an increasing number of supposedly intelligent men and women and making this statement about newspapers – and circulation numbers seem to back up their claims.

However, what gets me is how proud they seem to be about it. 

Ummm?

Perhaps it is because they revel in their ignorance of the world around them?

Or maybe it is because they don’t think they could handle the information presented within their pages?

Perhaps they are just too closed-minded to read information that might go against their preconceived notions of how the world works?

Maybe they are so out of touch that they believe they will get all the news they need from their television and Internet?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Newspapers are the cornerstone of our democracy.  Without them, we will be DOOMED.  Seriously.

If you doubt this statement, or think it’s overblown, just do the following: Read the local newspapers in a region a television or radio station supposedly “covers” in a day and then see how much information they “report” that morning, afternoon and evening.  It will blow your mind.  The same is true about “hyper-local news organizations,” only here the information is often more than a few hours late, so you might want to keep that original newspaper around for a week or so to reference.

Or, better yet, all newspapers should shut down their operations (print and online) for 48 hours.  Then watch all other media entities suffer.  Seriously chaos will ensue in their newsrooms.  Sure, you will see a bunch of fire stories, but that’s about it.  You will lose all substance, which is precisely what newspapers bring.

So sure, don’t subscribe to newspapers, but don’t complain when our society collapses.  It will be too late.

Newspapers need a pay wall set up immediately.  They need to put all of their content behind digital barriers that only people who pay can access. 

This needs to be done effectively in an innovative way.  Then, and only then, might our society and democracy be saved.

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I came across a sobering graphic on Mint that really illustrates the decline of newspapers in America.

Check it out below, or click the graphic to see a high resolution image.
MINT-DEATH-OF-NEWS-R2

Despite such a clearly pessimistic portrait of the industry, how can I be so confident of their future resurgence? 

Check out delowdown with deloma for the full story — including what this graphic fails to tell you.

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