5 ms·

Let's say you're standing in a field strewn with gold bars. A man comes up to you and offers to sell you a gold bar for $400,000. You point out that you are sta

Let's say you're standing in a field strewn with gold bars. A man comes up to you and offers to sell you a gold bar for $400,000. You point out that you are standing among hundreds of gold bars, all of them free for the taking. He points out that it was a lot of hard work extracting gold from thousands of tons of ore, casting it, assaying it, etc. Just because something cost a lot to make, doesn't mean it's worth a lot. Sorry.

DannyBee 10y ago
Ah, yes, this is also why the US has no sweat of the brow doctrine, with the prime example being "trying to copyright a phone book".
teej 10y ago
But I don't live in a world surrounded by gold bars. I live in a world where news comes from Buzzfeed and CNN and Fox News and less scrupulous "news" organizations who are only looking towards the next eyeball. I am surrounded by bars of iron. Your parable simply doesn't match the world I live in.
- civility 10y ago
  Consider BBC, Al Jazeera, MIT News, and many many others. I won't say those are all gold, but they aren't lead.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mertd 10y ago
To be fair, we do not exactly have an oversupply of WSJ caliber journalism.
- meesterdude 10y ago
  To also be fair, WSJ is hardly high caliber journalism, and since the sale to Murdoch has degraded significantly in quality
  - josephpmay 10y ago
    I would disagree. Their opinion pages have become more conservative, but their business news and investigative reporting is just as good as it always has been.
    - briandear 10y ago
      I agree. However I do always wonder why conservative views are devalued. I am a paid NY Times digital subscriber and I think the price is robbery however despite being conservative, I do find value in the other viewpoints. It seems like many equate conservative viewpoints as 'not worth supporting.' In my opinion, it's worth it for me to read the other side because I don't necessarily need an echo chamber reinforcing my own bias. Perhaps ironically, I subscribe to The NY Times and not the WSJ.
  - 0xC0DECAFE2020 10y ago
    And therin lies the situation. WSJ is worth very little to the very many. I see it as just another editorialized website. Was it always that way? No. Paper editions of the wall street journal were very good, on occasion. Web editions in the new age of journalism, not even close. No where near worth even trying to go around their paywall.
    - gm-conspiracy 10y ago
      The beginning of the end for me with the WSJ was when they changed the printed size.

DannyBee 10y ago

Ah, yes, this is also why the US has no sweat of the brow doctrine, with the prime example being "trying to copyright a phone book".

teej 10y ago

But I don't live in a world surrounded by gold bars. I live in a world where news comes from Buzzfeed and CNN and Fox News and less scrupulous "news" organizations who are only looking towards the next eyeball. I am surrounded by bars of iron. Your parable simply doesn't match the world I live in.

civility 10y ago
Consider BBC, Al Jazeera, MIT News, and many many others. I won't say those are all gold, but they aren't lead.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mertd 10y ago

To be fair, we do not exactly have an oversupply of WSJ caliber journalism.

meesterdude 10y ago
To also be fair, WSJ is hardly high caliber journalism, and since the sale to Murdoch has degraded significantly in quality
- josephpmay 10y ago
  I would disagree. Their opinion pages have become more conservative, but their business news and investigative reporting is just as good as it always has been.
  - briandear 10y ago
    I agree. However I do always wonder why conservative views are devalued. I am a paid NY Times digital subscriber and I think the price is robbery however despite being conservative, I do find value in the other viewpoints. It seems like many equate conservative viewpoints as 'not worth supporting.' In my opinion, it's worth it for me to read the other side because I don't necessarily need an echo chamber reinforcing my own bias. Perhaps ironically, I subscribe to The NY Times and not the WSJ.
- 0xC0DECAFE2020 10y ago
  And therin lies the situation. WSJ is worth very little to the very many. I see it as just another editorialized website. Was it always that way? No. Paper editions of the wall street journal were very good, on occasion. Web editions in the new age of journalism, not even close. No where near worth even trying to go around their paywall.
  - gm-conspiracy 10y ago
    The beginning of the end for me with the WSJ was when they changed the printed size.