peanut gallery

as dead tree newspapers
circle the drain
some have spent time wondering what
the news is going to look like five years from now

when ancient publications can no longer afford to field
an army of reporters

the democratization of the news
we're promised
where people just like us
decide what's important
and how to tell us about it

joy

then every media outlet can be just like
cnn's amateur reporters
breathy you-tube-y garbage

or worse the boston globe's user commenters
who are part rush limbaugh and part fox mulder
except with more free time on their hands
certain that there's a vast conspiracy on the part of
barney frank
ted kennedy
the city of boston
the mbta
and
larry lucchino
to
socialize health care
take their jobs and give them to someone else
screw red sox fans
keep tolls on all highways forever and double them for people from western mass
and force everybody to have a gay wedding

i hate reading them but sometimes i can't stop

i'd put it straight into the recycling bin and
keep reading on the computer
but i'm tempted to subscribe to the paper anyway
just to stave off the day where these people are the newspaper
as opposed to brain-dead monkeys scribbling on it with their
feces