That G-D D-mned Times Select! Rude gesture! Rude gesture!

The Times’s new policy of holding back certain columns from the freeloading Internet hoards is interfering with my God given right to blog about the Times op-ed writers. David Brooks and Maureen Dowd need me. They do. We bloggers bring them readers, and they are such yummy blog fodder.

You mean I should PAY for the paper? No way, dude.

And then I wanted to blog about an Atlantic Monthly Review of Our Bodies, Ourselves, which the reviewer says is hopelessly dated. Our Bodies states that “the main reason that women try to “improve our appearance’ is to attract and win the approval of men.” Nonsense says the reviewer. Women get fake boobs to impress other women.

There were other juicy points in the review that would have made a fun blog post, but Atlantic Monthly only lets their subscribers read the whole article on line. Now, I have the magazine in front of me. Why would I need to look at it on-line, as well, except to spread the word to others?

This is foolish, foolish policy, Mainstream Media. ‘Ya listening to me? You need the online buzz to drive readership. Online buzz has made the editorial writers into stars. Even if all readers aren’t paying, it is still readership which is means that you can charge advertisers more. You might make me pay $4 a week for my subscription, but you lost thousands of other readers and then millions of advertising bucks.

It’s bad business to restrict online access to printed material. The Times stock tanked this week partially as a result of this new policy.

And the Dude says that it is totally fascist.