Bridge to Nowhere

Yesterday, I ran across the “The Bridge Bicyclist” in the online version of the New York Times. Part of its One IN 8 MILLION segment, the multimedia item profiled Christian Hubert, a former Belgian citizen who has lived off and on in New York City since the 1960’s. Despite being afflicted with vertigo, Mr. Hubert has managed to consistently commute over the Manhattan or Brooklyn Bridge during his years in the city.

While viewing the piece, I couldn’t help but feel that this Saturday news item was equally befitting of one of my favorite Sunday morning shows, CBS’s Sunday Morning. Mr. Hubert’s tale, coupled with an introduction and narration by Charles Osgood, would have fit rather nicely before the oft un-bastardized closing nature scene. Cue the trumpets of Abblasen.

Strangely, these types of multimedia pieces that are found ubiquitously throughout the Internet these days have been partly responsible for the downfall of another Sunday [and daily] staple, the newspaper.

As Adrian Pratt points out, “What with blogs, Twitter, instant messaging, camera phones, news aggregators and thousands upon thousands of Web sites and citizen journalists, who needs newspapers in print or online?”

Some reports suggest that the New York Times may not last past the Spring, whereas other stalwart newspapers such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have already been earmarked for the media graveyard.

It’s hard to fathom, but picking up a girthed Sunday paper and sitting down to a cup of coffee may soon be considered nostalgic.

Photo: Todd Heisler (from The Bridge Bicyclist – New York Times online)