[Posted
September 14, 2008]Newspapers fail to identify what is newsworthy
Newspapers deserve to die for failure to offer newsworthy items to their readers
Corante August 24, 2008
- VIN CROSBIE
Transforming American Newspapers (Part 2)
It is almost impossible to overstate how utterly the supply of news and information available to most Americans has changed during the past 35 years. Within a single generation, the Supply & Demand equation has gone from relative scarcity to certain surplus. People now have so much access to information that some are complaining about 'data smog'.
I've heard many experts say that the evolution in access to media during the past three decades has been the greatest since Gutenberg time. Yet the reality is that it's much, much greater. The effects this radical increase in the supply of news and information that is readily available to people will have on civilization, nonetheless any one industry, will be much, much larger than anything the invention of the printing press ever wrought.
The immediate effect has been that more than 1.4 billion people - one of every six people worldwide - gravitated online to use this cornucopia of news and information. There are now spending more time using it than they spend reading printed newspapers and magazines. go to story
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Asking questions and getting answers is the whole engagement, according to Srila Prabhupada in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto. The students are asking questions and getting answers, the politicians are asking questions and getting answers, the housewife is asking questions and getting answers, everyone is asking questions and getting answers, and they go on asking questions and getting answers for the whole of their lives, but the questions and answers do not satisfy anyone. They never satisfy the soul or the self, because such questions and answers have nothing to do with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Animals also ask questions and get answers about the material necessities of life: "What's to eat? Where to sleep? Where is sex?" For animals there is no program of hearing or asking about Vishnu. A human being, however, is supposed to ask questions and get answers on the subject of Krishna. Atatho brahma-jijñasa: the first aphorism of Vedanta Sutra says, "Now that we are in the human form of life, we should inquire about Brahman, about the Absolute Truth." more
No scarcity of news about the spiritual world
excerpt lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam, Los Angeles, Dec 25, 1973
We have written so many books simply about Krishna. Not all books published—we have published about twenty books—but we have to finish it. It cannot be finished, but at least, to some extent it will be finished by sixty books. And what is that subject matter? Krishna. That's all. People cannot imagine that about God, sixty books can be written. There is no, I mean to say, system of religion where you can find... Not only... Sixty is the minimum. Sixty books of four hundred pages can be written simply on God. If we divert our attention to Krishna consciousness, we can chant Krishna—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Kirtanad eva krishnasya [SB 12.3.51]. We can read about Krishna whole life, such big literature. Whole life. If you read twenty-four hours daily—that you cannot—still, you have to devote your whole life to finish this literature.
So we have got enough material to become Krishna conscious. My Guru Maharaja was questioned by one big politician. He came to see him. He was asking, "What are your activities?" So at that time my Guru Maharaja was publishing one paper. I think it is still published in Mayapura. It is called... What is called? Daily news, it was a daily newspaper, small. Navadvipa Prakash, like that. Nadiya Prakash. Nadiya Prakash. Daily. So this politician inquired from Guru Maharaja, "You are publishing a daily paper about God consciousness?" "Yes." "No, what you are writing?" He was surprised. The politicians think that newspaper can be filled up with rubbish political news only. That's all. They cannot think that newspaper can be filled up by news from spiritual world. Yes. They have no idea. They have no idea there is spiritual world. So my Guru Maharaja explained that "Why you are thinking of only one small newspaper? You do not know what is spiritual world. This material world is one-fourth portion of the whole creation of the Lord. And the three-fourths' portion is the spiritual world. And in this one-fourth portion there are innumerable universes. This is one of the universes. And in each universe there are millions of planets. And this planet, earthly planet, is only a small planet in that universe. And on this earthly planet, there are so many cities. And in each city, there are so many newspapers. And each newspaper has got so many editions. This is the position of the material world. Now, think over the spiritual world. It is... The spiritual world is three-fourths, three times bigger than this material world. And there are so many planets, so many universes, and so many activities. So we can produce not one newspaper daily, but every minute a newspaper. We can produce. Unfortunately, there is no customer. You see? This is the difficulty. For material news, there are so many customers, but when we put something, spiritual news, no customer. This is the difficulty. Otherwise... You are thinking of one newspaper daily. We could issue every second a newspaper about spiritual news."
So these sixty books are not sufficient. It is simply an introduction to the spiritual activities of the spiritual world. People have no interest. They do not know. We are simply trying to introduce it.
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