Rochester tops in newspaper readership

According to a recent report by Scarborough Research, upstate New York is home to four of the top eight best markets for newspaper readership in the entire country:

1 Rochester, NY (87%)
2 Cleveland/Akron, OH (86%)
3 Buffalo, NY (86%)
4 Pittsburgh, PA (85%)
5 Syracuse, NY (85%)
6 Boston, MA (85%)
7 Hartford/New Haven, CT (85%)
8 Albany/Schenectady/Troy (85%)
9 New York, NY (84%)
10 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA (84%)

To reiterate, the above suggests that a full 87% of the adult population of Rochester, NY reads either a newspaper or a newspaper's website at least once per week. Wow.

Vick to the Future

Two months ago, animal rights activist group PETA demanded that the NFL subject beleaguered QB Michael Vick to a brain scan to test for psychopathy before allowing him to reenter the league. More on that after a brief summary of the events leading up to now.

Vick, once a perennial Pro-Bowler and one of the richest athletes in professional sports, has fallen on hard times as of late. After he was implicated after the bust of an underground dogfighting ring, he was suspended from football and sentenced to 23 months in federal prison. He filed for bankruptcy protection six months later.

It was recently revealed that Vick could be released in May to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement. What's more, he has every intention of making a comeback in the NFL.

Enter the weird, brain-scanning stuff.

PETA's letter seems earnest enough. It asks, quite simply, that Vick should be tested for the capacity to express true remorse before being allowed to "be a children's hero again." Never mind how troubling the implications of treating the mind as a collection of springs and gears, rather than a complex, emotional, often irrational and easily misunderstood mystery, truly is.

Toni Monkovic, a writer for the New York Times' excellent Fifth Down Blog, couldn't help but wonder in an entry posted yesterday: has PETA gone too far?

Today, a guest commentator addressed that question. If given the choice between entrusting a beloved pit bull to PETA or Vick, he'd take his chances with Vick.

It's an interesting read.

Shorts 3/23 – Revenue 2.0, Spitzer, the Nanny State

RevenueTwoPointZero
On March 11, a bunch of media re-envisioners gathered together and pledged to come up with a way to preserve journalism and revolutionize advertising – all by March 21. Now that's a tall order.

Early this morning, they made good. It's worth a look.

Being a governor has become America's toughest job | Eliot Spitzer
The latest entry in Spitzer's Slate column. Aside from the attention-grabbing title, the former Guv's got some good insights on how many states wake up and find themselves at the bottom of an impossible hole

Yes, we are living in the Nanny State | Rick Karlin, Times Union
Though it's often taken for granted, a recent study confirms it: New Yorkers have relatively less "personal freedom'' but pay the highest taxes in the United states.