What will happen to the newspapers? Why are some hospitals threatening their employees if they speak out? And other questions.

(Cat (Olive Oyl) looking in window.  Wants to know when is dinnertime?)

A few questions I have after reading news reports on my iPhone ($30 a month, is it worth it to spend 4 hr a day reading the news?)…

First, what will happen to the newspapers?  Advertising revenue has dried out, leaving those with subscription services like NYT as the only ones with any money coming in.  Free newspapers are dead; no ventilators available to these once frequented hard copy sources.  Local newspapers have been dying for years because of the shifts in revenue and aging out of those who like to read the paper with their morning coffee.

Second, where do some hospitals and those who own them come off telling employees that they can’t talk to reporters or make posts on Faceplant?  Haven’t they heard of the First Amendment or are they just closet fascists?  What is the difference between a capitalist and a closet fascist?  Don’t they know that healthcare employees are much in demand right now, and if someone gets fired they can sue (someone has already)?  Raising privacy issues is a non-starter– these people are not identifying or discussing individual patients.  Their real objection is that they don’t want people to know that the medical system is under extreme stress and that personal protective equipment is in such short supply, there are none available for the general public.

I know you already have the answers to these questions.  So do I, that is, I mean, these questions are rhetorical.  Enough speculation, time to gather more data.