Wow, your rant is pretty much the same thing I wrote to Newswatch tonight, only I had to be brief. I hope you don't mind if I spread your rant around a bit.
When the printing press was invented and the Bible became readily available, the priests could no longer hold control over the people. When the old media (newspapers, radio, TV) came into being, it controlled and shaped what news people received. The invention of the computer (thank you Al Gore) has caused a seismic shift in the way the ordinary citizen accesses the news. The old media has buried its head in the sand and refused to recognize that it is no longer relevant. Lately I am amazed at the lack of knowledge exhibited by the talking heads. The question that reporters need to answer is this: Who is more likely to dig up the truth of a subject, one reporter or thousands of reporters from around the world? It's a new world that can't be hoodwinked by spin. Long live the bloggers.