Fake news: more newsy than real news

I'm not sure what qualifies the founder of Craigslist, Craig "Good Thing My Name's Not Vladimir" Newmark, to speak to the annual convention of the Newspaper Association of America, but he did. And he urged his listeners to be more like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart:

Declaring those two shows his primary source of news, Newmark told the annual convention of the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group, that Stewart provided a valuable service by juxtaposing video clips of lobbyists and other public officials giving contradicting statements at different times.

Newmark, speaking in an on-stage interview with talk show host Charlie Rose, says he still prefers reading news on paper rather than online, but he called that preference a "luxury" that was unlikely to endure.

Newmark said the country needed more investigative journalism, not less, and pointed to a recent study suggesting that that kind of reporting could be an important way for newspapers to improve profitability.

And while he said that the business of making, editing and writing news had a "great future," he said he did have "great deal of sympathy" for people running printing presses. "They're screwed," he said.

The funny part, though, was the response to Newmark's suggestion:

Newmark's audience didn't warm especially to his suggestions about newspaper coverage, although one key industry executive conceded that he had a point about using humor to get one's point across, something that Newmark himself emphasized in his remarks.

Jay Smith, the president of Cox Newspapers in Atlanta and a former chairman of the Newspaper Association of America, said in an interview that Newmark's suggestions about exposing contradictions in the statements of public officials was something newspapers already do.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Whew! I haven't had a laugh like that in a while. The next time the Washington Post or the New York Times exposes Republican contradictions, let me know, okay?