Liberal/Conservative... no matter what your leaning, the newspaper is the opposite.

While the newspaper industry struggles to figure out the business model of the future, some reader arguments never really change.

I've not been in the business long enough to have lost my hope and belief in a better tomorrow, that people are inherently good and that if its good versus evil, good will always win. My optimism stays with me, even though many people I know have lost their positive outlook on life long, long ago.

One thing I am finding you can count on, no matter what you write, people will accuse the paper of taking a stance. The coverage is consistently liberal AND conservative depending on the what are the views of the person you are talking to.

Here I give an example. A San Jose Mercury News columnist Mike Cassidy opened the door to incredible waves of criticism when he suggested the readers and the newspaper have a conversation about the state of the paper's financial affairs. Every newspaper has endured severe cuts that meant certain sections and features would disappear forever.

In journalism school, they still teach you that there should be something for everyone inside so that each person may have a reason to pick up the newspaper. Each time the newspaper chooses to eliminate one thing, does it run the risk of eliminating a reader as well?

Even if that is a risk, Cassidy followed up his column with some of the reactions of readers. In this column he quotes a reader who says they pray the newspaper folds. That really made me upset.

When I was a teenager, I got a job working as a telemarketer for a company that sold accidental death insurance policies to people who had JCPenny cards. I had some people who were actually grateful to have been offered an affordable policy, others who only wanted to listen to my voice and still others who told me I was the scum of the Earth. Now, imagine I was standing right in front of you, would you still say that?

I think people have these harsh thoughts all day long, but common courtesy prevents us from saying things we know will accomplish nothing more than inflicting pain. This particular caller could just stop reading, rather than wish the entire newspaper staff were out of a job.

Why would anyone ever think that was OK? It's much the same as those who will consistently say the newspaper is against them. Maybe that's why the caller was so mad. Stinking liberal rag...