Yep. FR pretty much "reacts" to the stories selected.
Until we seize that power from them we are meaningless.
I think that objective reaction and fleshing out of stories is invaluable, and powerful. I think that for the most part, "what gets on the news" represents a fairly reasonable judgement. That is, I think that reacting to what is "the story of the day" covers most (but not all) of the important issues.
In my opinion, where the media really comes short is in educating the reader as to how things work, in putting the story into an accurate context. Some FR threads do a good job of that.
I think a daily thread, with weekly summary, could be a really powerful force for shaping what is and is not considered "newsworthy" today.
That power to shape won't come out of a FR discussion. It depends on having broadcast and print rights, as well as editorial power of what will be aired and what won't. But as a matter of keeping a personal eye on the ball, I think your idea is great.
W.C. Fields once said, "there comes a time in a man's life when he has to seize the bull by the tail and face the situation."
I'm afraid I'm working up to seizing a bull's tail. Wanna join me?
I think I work better in a "story analysis" mode - ever the critic. My motivation is more to make sense of the story, to get the factual basis for the report, and in most cases, to understand "how things really work." It's an effort with an entirely personal motivation.
As often as not, I'm set off by an assertion of or question by a FReeper:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1516559/posts?page=37#37
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1494693/posts?page=16#16
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1516791/posts?page=322#322 & preceding post 308
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1224594/posts?page=24#24
At any rate, I don't do very well with assigned work, so y'all have to be content with whatever contributions I feel like making (probably grateful that I don't make more!)
Yes, I agree it would be better if we controled the spin instead of reacted to it, but consider how much worse off we would be if we did NOT have a "Counter media" to get the facts out? Like most things in life, change in the information flow is evolutionary, not revolutionary.