Last year was a profitable one for Black Press Ltd., the Canada-based owner of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, as it bought, sold and merged newspapers. An earnings report filed by Torstar Corp., which owns almost one-fifth of Black Press, shows the Victoria, British Columbia-based Black Press had about $17 million in profits, excluding impairment charges, during 2010. That compared with about $12.9 million of earnings in 2009.

Rupert Murdoch has triggered some of the biggest earthquakes across the US media landscape. It is over a quarter of a century since he bought a raft of television stations for an unheard of $3.5bn. It is 18 years since he swooped to buy the rights to American football for $1.5bn, turning the previously cozy television establishment on its head. Indeed, the inexorable rise of Fox News as a voice of the right is one of the biggest media stories of the past decade.

A few words about three words, courtesy of one Barry Ritholtz, a financial analyst, author and TV commentator who reported recently that Roger Ailes -- the controversial chairman of Fox News-- was to be indicted. When Salon.com questioned Ritholtz's sourcing, his response, in part, was "If it's true we'll find out. If it's not, no big deal." No big deal? Let us regard that as a signpost on the road toward America's secession from objective reality.