This is non-sense: “The NE is doing what all competitive organizations do: it’s exploiting its relative advantages.” The Enquirer and the Times are not “competitive organizations” when it comes to public affairs reporting. Their aims are different (titillation versus service), and they don’t…

As the media gurus like to say, every media organization is competing with every other (including movies, TV, radio, the Web, books, videogames) for time, attention, and “mindshare,” so yes, I would contend that Enquirer, the Times, NEWSWEEK, and Perez Hilton are ALL “competitive organizations” when it comes to public-affairs reporting. It’s just that they (and their readers) have differing ideas of what constitutes “public affairs.”

Oh, and speaking of that: IT’S MARATHON TIME, SO DONATE TO SUPPORT MY CALL-IN SHOW ON FREEFORM NONCOMMERCIAL WFMU! Was that plea a little downmarket? So be it. The marketplace of ideas is a competitive place, and we all have to use our relative advantages.