ARE YOU AN AUTHOR IF THERE ARE NO TREES INVOLVED?

Users of the quill pen and ink well surely had something to say about those upstarts who had to resort to the fountain pen or later, God forbid, the typewriter. Change can be shocking to those who do things the same way for years. I recall the hoopla over Wikileaks when the New York Times among others tried to shove their opinion down our throats (how unlike them) that the only legitimate journalists work in print with ink on paper or were employees of publicly traded companies of a certain size. Essentially, they "dissed" everyone who writes in cyberspace and stated that bloggers and such, online news organizations, had no "right" to call themselves journalists...with the possible exception of, maybe, The Huffington Post, their ideological soulmate.

Though I do not wish this for myself, I do not mind that some drivers need to buy a car that parks itself, has an automatic navigation system to tell the driver where he is at all times, and all the other nanny-gizmos and electronics that Lexus sells, instead of an involved driving experience. I understand that parallel parking isn't for everyone and road-feel is to many people, just another way to say "rough ride." An S-class Mercedes with lane change warning, and automatic braking if you get too close to the car ahead is no less a car than a Mazda Miata with a stick-shift. It is just another form of car, just like cyber-journalism and online-writing are other forms of journalism and writing.

Why do the print journalists have such a high and mighty opinion of themselves, other than self preservation of their dinosaur industry? Why should any right thinking person shell out $4.50 for the Sunday New York Times when you can watch cable news or go online to a 1000 other sources without fear of indoctrination in liberal-think? Beats me. I have no birdcage to line nor fish to wrap. We are not packing dishes for a move anytime soon. Why not let the trees live and get your information electronically? This goes for books too. With the Kindle, Nook, and iPad, in the near future, books will be released that have no physical form, pages, or covers and yet they will inform and entertain just as if you pulled a volume from the shelf. So you have to buy a roll of Bounty towel paper instead of using old newspaper to clean you windows...get over it.