I know this is very presumptive of me to argue with someone of Michael Crichton’s intellect, but I don’t think the media ever has produced a product called “news.” What they are is an information distribution system. News is merely distributed information.
The internet is a technologically superior distribution system against which paper and electronic broadcast cannot compete. And it has the additional advantage of instant feedback.
All just my opinion, of course.
I explained the concept of news to my daughter (a journalism major and excellent conservative reporter) this way:
News: The sh*t you place in a paper so people will pick it up and look at the ads.Unfortunately, the MSM has forgotten the latter part of this definition -- and they are now paying a terrible price.