If you watch Fox, or CNN, or MSNBC, and pay attention, you'll notice that they all do a more-or-less adequate job of covering "events" - hurricanes, school shootings, even political rallies - although they all have their slant on that last one.

But if you listen, the real meaty stuff, the "hard" stuff - like corruption, Bob Mueller, tax analyses, you know, things that require more than ten seconds of explanation - even on TV, they almost all start with "The New York Times is reporting..." Or "From the Washington Post today..." or "According to the Wall Street Journal..."

Why is that?

It's because print journalism doesn't have to be "sexy", it doesn't have to have quippy sound bites, it doesn't HAVE to be written to a third grade level (although it sometimes is). Even in this dramatically scaled back age, the really strong newspapers drive a lot of the coverage.

The Oklahoman should be providing that role for Oklahoma City. I'm glad Pete has taken over the Gazette, I'm thrilled with the potential there but even he would say, I think, that OKC needs a very strong daily newspaper.

I'm increasingly of the opinion that daily papers in the future, if they are to survive, are going to have to be non-profit entities.