Posted on 11/08/2004 11:20:57 AM PST by Grendel9
As the election campaign unfolded, operators of some of the internets politics-oriented blogs, no doubt high on the perfume of many "hits" and their own developing sense of community, envisioned a future when they would diminish then replace the traditional media as the nations primary source of political news and commentary. *** The public is now assaulted by news and pretend-news from many directions, thanks to the now infamous "information superhighway." But the ability to transmit words, we learned during the Citizens Band radio fad of the 70s, does not mean that any knowledge is being passed along. One of the verdicts rendered by election night 2004 is that, given their lack of expertise, standards and, yes, humility, the chances of the bloggers replacing mainstream journalism are about as good as the parasite replacing the dog it fastens on.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
"PRETEND-NEWS"
Actually we must be careful, CBS has a copyright on Pretend-News!!
But then, FR wasn't designed to be a blog.
He uses their errors to proclaim MSM gave more accurate coverage when it took the networks days to call states for President Bush.
Then he compares computers to CB radios!
And he complains about bloggers expertise, standards and humility?
I certainly do beleive that blogs and internet chat are going to replace mainstream journalists.
The blogs and open chat systems like Free Republic already "re-size" or re-edit the news, emphasizing or de-emphasizing stories and providing new information to correct perceived omissions on the part of Old Media.
Once someone can find a way (probably via a meta-search structure of some kind) to develop the primary information that is being re-edited here, Old Media will be well on its way to being useless.
Blogging will, of course, never replace the mainstream media. Most blogs discuss info that's reported in the mainstream media. What it adds is a meta watch dog element (a watch dog watching the watch dog). Blogs remind the mainstream media that they need to defend their sources and their reporting, and that everything is easily fact-checked. In an efficient market place of ideas, articles that are well-reported, interesting and timely will stand out regardless. So newspapers and TV stations should produce more of those, and stop fretting that many people with websites are fact-checking their articles. So what?
That's exactly the issue that has to be resolved. Once primary source material is originated outside of Old Media, the Old Media will be obsolete.
We already "re-size" or re-edit the news here. We have to originate it as well.
Once stories are originated away from the Old Media, the Old Media -- already rotted on the inside due to their years of setting the agenda with no transparency -- will collapse. Viva la revolucion!
Then they should have been HERE.....we didn't believe them.
Thank God we are not a BLOG!
verses CBS as making up the news and not real reporting.
Tyrannosaurus, Apatosaurus , Plateosaurus, Dan Rather, CBS
Quite simply put, you don't know what you're talking about.
Take a look at my join date; we've been doing this for over seven years; we don't need to mainstream press telling us what it's about.
And we certainly don't need people trying to redefine what we do.
Information origination and information spreading are two different things.
You're behind; they use to be two different things but they aren't anymore; you may think we "needed" Dan Rather's prior history to expose him, but you're wrong; what we do here is dissect news and the news reporters; you can't do that without looking at their history.
There was much discussion here on FR that very afternoon about WHERE those numbers are coming from and WHO was putting them out, and what their reasons were.
As far as I'm concerned, Drudge and NRO got suckered -- and in their haste to be "first" chose not to be accurate.
Dear Eric:
You're just pissed because we can do what you do -- and sometimes better -- without leaving the house; so, in a sense, we make YOU irrelevant.
Love,
Howlin
Perhaps, but I can tell you that I wouldn't go to a Congressional hearing, track down the various members for quotes on an issue, try to find the real story through interviews with various interest groups and find anecdotes about people a bill might affect ... for free. That's why news doesn't originate in the blogosphere too often. Journalism is a full time job. Unless the blogosphere plans to pay it as such, good luck.
I have never seen an industry with as much disdain for its customers than the Lamestream Media.
Be as dismissive as you like, Eric. We aren't going away no matter how many condescending articles you publish; indeed, the very fact that you published this one is indicative of our increasing power.
I'm just amazed that anyone from CBS could use the term "pretend-news" with a straight face...
"...thanks to the now infamous 'information superhighway.'"
I wonder if the author is sorry that he voted for Gore, seeing as how the latter invented the internet?
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