The Editorial We

There is no reason to start a new newspaper unless your goal is to reinvent journalism. At my last visit to a psychiatrist, I was diagnosed as having "delusions of grandeur," to which I plead guilty, so reinventing journalism it will have to be.

Name another profession even mentioned - much less protected - by the constitution of the United States. Not a one. They plumb left farmers and lawyers out and decided to protect the one single profession that was actually indispensable to the running of the perpetual government they were constructing. Of course there would be food and drink and construction in this brand new country, but if the rulers of this new form of government tried to put something over upon the people, if there wasn't transparency between the rulers and the governed, then democracy literally wouldn't work because voters wouldn't know what they were getting. They could end up with leaders who did the exact opposite of what the people who voted them into office wanted them to do.

The founding fathers were well aware of this so they created a fourth branch of government that, lo and behold, DIDN'T WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT. This was brilliant. They knew you couldn't have an actual branch sucking on the tit of government whose job was to investigate and make public every shady deal done by the OTHER branches of the U.S. Government. Such a job had to be done by an outsider, someone who couldn't be bribed, someone with a nose for news and a printing press, a town crier, someone who knew how to spell, this was a job for... JOURNALISM.

Before everything else, the first amendment to the constitution, repeat after me, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

One can't help but notice that freedom of speech and of the press is right up there with religion as a necessity in a democracy. Unfortunately, the founding fathers couldn't see the future. They banged out the second amendment without the slightest clue that blunderbusses would morph into atomic bombs, but if such a nightmare HAD occurred to them, they surely would have dealt with it.

Another thing that didn't occur to them was that the internet would kill the fourth estate. People used to have to buy newspaper to know anything. Now that information is free, it looks like it's time for the Government to save journalism by starting their own station, thus, Fox News.

So here's the idea. Arianna Huffington managed to convince hundreds of the world's best writers to work for free while raking in millions herself. The Seattle Free Press will work just like that only the writers and graphic artists get the money. We will start out paying a penny a word. 200 words, two bucks. That's for 1st payment which comes from first revenue dollars. After that, every penny is split 50/50 between the artists and the operating expenses of the paper. We will work out a logarithm where the price per word goes up as revenues increase. By the end of the first year, I hope to go up to a nickel a word, imagine that. Gimme 5,000 words, get $50 up front, and 50% piece of all revenue generated by your piece forever.

I am your homeless editor/publisher cranking out an entire newspaper from public computers in Seattle. I will make all editorial decisions because I think I'm the best editor on earth. (There's that old delusions of grandeur thing. You'll get used to it. I've got bigger plans.) But I do need help. An office. A domain. A site designer and webmaster. How about a fucking computer so I don't have to work in libraries?

But most of all, when this is ready, I want you to send me your shit, and this time, nothing gets published until everyone gets paid.


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