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Less than two weeks after carrying out orders to lay off 150 newsroom workers, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times resigned earlier this month in protest. The Times now finds itself without a publisher, advertising director, foreign editor, editorial editor, or UN bureau chief. Sam Zell, owner of the Times, says the downsize results from “some of the worst advertising numbers in the history of the world.” The LA Times is owned by the Chicago Tribune, whose editor also resigned after seven years on the job after the paper announced that 80 positions would be cut. Newspapers across the country face similar troubles and readers worry that the journalistic quality will suffer. In his recent article “So Goes the Newsroom, the Empire and the World,” veteran journalist Chris Hedges writes critically of the dangerous influence of corporations on news. Hedges argues that democracy requires unbiased information and an educated populace, but he sees threats to both in modern American society. He concludes that these shifts “are leaving us deaf, dumb, and blind.”

GUEST: Chris Hedges, former correspondent for the New York Times for nearly two decades, author of several books, his latest being “I Don’t Believe in Atheists.” Read his article about the newspaper industry here: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/21/10497/