Cartoon borrowed from Mitt Nerraw - http://mitnerraw.wordpress.com/category/mit-nerraws-cartoon-blog/

The Editor

Sydney Morning Herald

Dear Sir or Madam or Gina.

I’m sorry to not address you by name.  I know it’s impolite, but I tried to find out your name from the website: it’s apparently a secret – or the editorship changes so frequently that the web master isn’t prepared to commit to posting it by random selection from a database of Australian journos.

Anyway, after you’ve read this subscription cancellation, perhaps you might like to hand it on to the circulation people who doubtlessly are experienced in handling these things.

I apologise for being so pissweak that I can no longer cope with the once great paper’s slide into massive negativity.  In short, I have to stop reading the paper for my own mental well-being.  After considerable thought I have decided that I really do not benefit from you telling me all the shit that is happening in the world – from the micro (e.g. death of a child from neglect despite the child being well-known to DoCS), the meso – NSW Police unable to deal effectively with the daily afternoon drive by shooting to the macro – the killings in – pick a location – say Syria today.

And the illusion you are creating of massive economic oblivion – unspecified but shit-scary, eh ?  Riots in Greece.  500 QANTAS workers getting the shaft, a thousand bank staff to help maintain record profits – so we can be serviced from some tin shed call centre in a third world country where string and barb-wire repairs are considered luxuries and super glue is unheard-of.  Keep that profit up, advertisers !

The puzzling thing, despite people at my work walking around oozing fear of retrenchment (thanks to you and the other media), looming unemployment is given the lie by the fact that employment statistics are stable.  I’m not suggesting that you are lying to us, Gina.  But hey, prove to me that you’re not being just a tad selective with the truth.  I heard two dudes on the train yesterday talking enthusiastically about how the “new grads” were about to start at their organisation and that they were excellent candidates.

Maybe this kind of news eludes your posse of seekers of truth.  Must have this time, I guess.

I know that you think the Rudd Gillard shenanigan / farce / farrago / imbroglio is a kind of light relief, which might be qualitatively true except that the alternative is some kind of Dalek in swimming trunks.  It’s not funny, Gina.  It’s sad beyond belief.

And depressing.

So depressing.

So, in the balance, how much worse off will I be by not paying any more for you to bring me down when every day I open the front door only to be confronted by screaming headlines about some parliamentarian who fucks prostitutes, cheery fad diet tips from vacuous stars and pouting photographs of Marieke Hardy ?

Clearly, when you chew on it for a while, cancelling your subscription is as healthy as laying off salt, fat, sugar, alcohol, tobacco and as good as a weekend on a Zen retreat.

I suggest you try it too.

Good luck going forward.

Emmjay.