I think a few things are lost on those watching activity in the stacks. For one, you can get a book and leave, but to use a computer you have to stay there. For another, books take a relatively long time to finish compared with a video or a CD. Especially some of those non-fiction books about current events, which I hope some of those FOX News viewers are reading.

For some time I’ve wondered about the real impact of libraries. Political scientists have known for decades that a relatively small number of people really follow politically charged issues. But then they discuss them with friends and family and coworkers, and so act as a source of information and a lobby. So their influence goes farther than the single vote that they cast. I wonder, analogously, if library users act as a resource, extending the library’s influence beyond just those users that borrow books (and probably overlapping with the political resources).

E-books still cost money, you still can’t buy every book in electronic form, a small fraction of the population has an electronic book reader, and the internet still doesn’t have everything. But I suppose that doesn’t matter if your needs are met by Wikipedia and the New York Times Best Seller List. But as e-books become available, LIBRARIES are beginning to make them available. For instance, the Hennepin County Library (in Minnesota) will have e-books available for devices that are compatible with the relevant digital copyright protection technology, with one purchased title being used by one user at a time, like the physical collection.

The AL isn’t exactly a hippie tree hugger. If the AL is criticizing FOX News, what does that say?

How much evidence does it take to prove a point? the well educated would say you have to test it again and again and again, with hundreds of thousands of poll results and millions of observations. Common people would say that it takes only a couple – fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

There seems to be a lot more common people than there are educated people…and they aren’t living any worse…yet they aren’t spending all their time splitting hairs – they moved on a long time ago.

Is it really any surprise that the majority of people going to many libraries today are going for the free internet?

This is the same local station that “exposed” the police for towing the cars of Hispanics!!!! Except that they were actually only towing the cars of people who were not supposed to be behind the wheel (drunk, suspended DL or revoked DL). The actual figures (reported by Fox “News” as well as others) indicated Hispanics were in no way being targeted by the police. However, due to the fact that a large number of Hispanics in the Chicago area are driving on suspended or revoked (or no) license, their cars made up 48% of the tows.

Most thinking folks in the Chicago area know that Fox “News” Chicago is not the best place to get your information. I was glad to see Mary Dempsey reply to their dumb piece, but judging by the outrage expressed in the comments on the original story, it was probably unnecessary.

That is why we fought the Spanish-American war.

I think the underlying issue is that people are too willing to accept information at face value instead of considering where that info comes from. I can say that libraries are on the way out and why I believe that to be so, but just as the OP says, it’s an opinion unsupported by facts b/c I’m no expert and I’ve done no credible research (say.. at a library)

He has the makings of a good interviewer, he just has to listen to the answers and not be so busy making jokes.

As for the issues with the news media, it’s been my observation that the problem is a lack of civility, particularly on the American Right (i.e. Fox News). If you’re a liberal or progressive, why would you go on a channel that has a history of abusing your ideological kin? Conservatives rarely show up on MSNBC, either. I admit I may be biased here, but I think it’s because they don’t like answering hard questions, they don’t like being challenged, and they can’t behave themselves. Case in point – on several occasions Rachel Maddow has tried to have conversations with people on the Right, but they start to freak out once Dr. Maddow starts asking hard questions – interrupting her, trying to shout her down, etc. (She doesn’t put up with it, but she doesn’t sink to their level, either.)

The best interviewer out there might be Jon Stewart…he has a real knack for asking hard questions without things getting ugly.