Hyperbole (hī-pûr'bə-lē)

— American Heritage Dictionary [modified]

Despite gloom-and-doom headlines across the country about the future of the newspaper industry, Ithaca’s two daily publications — while facing serious economic challenges — do not appear to be in danger of folding anytime soon.

The editors of The Ithaca Journal and The Sun maintain that although they are being forced to adapt to declining advertising revenues, their products will continue to hit newsstands.

The extinction of newspapers has been a frequent conversation of late among publishers and readers alike.

On Wednesday morning, the entire editorial staff of the Daily Emerald — the student-produced newspaper at the University of Oregon — went on strike in protest of the attempts of its board of directors to install a publisher with unprecedented control over the newsroom.



Today, college newspapers across the United States and Canada stand in solidarity with the editorial staff of the Daily Emerald in support of the independent collegiate press and student-controlled editorial content. We are deeply dismayed by the short-sighted actions of the Emerald’s board of directors and strongly support the strike until the staff’s demands are met.

John McCain was right about something — he predicted that the economy was “about to crater,” and crater it did. The aggregate effect of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the credit crunch had the magnitude of a meteorite and caused financial havoc unseen since the Great Depression. Perhaps that is why many of America’s landmark industries are going the way of the dinosaurs.

Layoffs and a complete lack of confidence in Wall Street have decimated the savings and spending power of middle class Americans. Industry in turn has suffered, and the Big Three American automakers have been held up as the archetype of the failing and unprofitable American business model.