The demise of major American newspapers in our ordinary life could be seen as sad and tragic for a grandparent, and as an excellent opportunity to capitalize on another's misfortune for a plugged in, technological savvy grandchild.

The distance in generational gap between the two is not so much a preference as a giant chasm. It is not just a difference in media delivery systems. It is also a difference in thought, belief, innovation, progress and pecking order. We are a nation that celebrates and idolizes youth.

The old folks have little place in this new world; they are oftentimes neither respected nor tolerated. It is more likely that they will be kicked to the curb. Imagine the television commercial where the young man gives his grandma a ride to where she is going, and as she opens the door when they arrive, he literally kicks her out of the still moving car, screaming "Tuck and roll, Grandma, tuck and roll."

So it is today with our once respected and admired major newspapers. An industry that was born in colonial times, reached its apex before radio arrived, hung on with the advent of television, and neglected to notice the presence of the Internet, is now facing extinction.

It was newspaper reporters that gave rise to the expression and distinction of being the "Fourth Estate". The moniker apparently had its roots in 1789, when Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the "Estates General". The First Estate consisted of 300 clergy, the Second Estate 300 nobles and the Third Estate 600 commoners.

Years later, after the French Revolution, British politician and statesman Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said "Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all."

The earliest written use of the term to mean the press was by Thomas Carlyle in his book On Heroes and Hero Worship in 1841, when Carlyle quoted Burke's comment.

It was newspapers that were the first to carry on the proud tradition of exposing the wrongdoing of government officials, politicians and those who sought to gain advantage at the expense of others. Newspapers were the guardians who kept a keen eye on the wealthy and powerful.

The rapid demise and fall of newspapers from grace has indeed been sad and tragic. I spent the first 20 years of my working life as an editor of several weeklies; an investigative reporter, sports editor and managing editor of daily newspapers; and the owner of a newspaper publishing company.

It was still an exciting ride when I got out of the business in early 1980s. In retrospect, I now realize that the newspaper industry was already on the downslide when I began my career in the early 1960s.

The newspaper industry was not blindsided by the Internet. Newspaper owners and managers simply refused to notice and calculate the loss in business when the Internet severely cut into their classified advertising revenue. They were slow to establish web sites and re-market their enterprise in a changing economy.

Potential young readers were weaned on the Internet and attracted to it like bees to honey. The video game revolution merely reinforced what the younger generation had already sensed-that newspapers were on the way out.

Newspapers also compounded the problem by rewarding a bunch of bright but opinionated reporters to stop gathering and reporting the facts, and allowed them to spew out all manner of personal journalism in the name of reporting. The result was propaganda disguised as news.

Readers were no longer given the facts and allowed to draw their own conclusion. The readers were too often led to an opinionated conclusion by writers who thought they knew more than their readers. How many times in history have politicians thought they knew more and had more common sense than the collected mass of people they represented?

The list of major American daily newspapers which have already failed or are on verge of failing reads like a list of who's who in the history of journalism. And now a few in Congress have floated the idea of giving bailout money to these once great members of an honorable institution gone wrong. Doing so would be a huge mistake.

The same newspaper owners, editors and reporters who sank to such a despicable level as to become mere political shills for politicians and government officials deserve what they are getting.

If the newspaper industry deserves to survive in America, it must re-market itself to serve a changing population that demands more than just political and social tripe by a bunch of editors and reporters who think they are God's gift to journalism when in fact they are very expendable.

Great journalism starts in the heart, is filled up with integrity, honesty and clarity, and will not succumb to political partisanship, social engineering and agendas of misinformation and hate.

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley