PittsburghAfterDark
CAGiversary!
I just read an interesting article on the USA Today site about bloggers. Well, I don't know if you can call a message board a blog but since I visit freerepublic.com and many of you may visit other discussion forums like DU we're all the mainstream media's enemies.
What made me post this and think of writing about the topic was a pretty good point; that the mainstream media this election cycle is going to be known for 2 things, beating to death 30 year old biographies and document forgeries. I mean think about it, what else has been on the front pages? Where have discussions been about entitlement spending? Where have debates been for privitizing social security? School choice? Illegal immigration?
Now this isn't a rant that the issues aren't being discussed. They are, by us and groups and boards like us. Six weeks to go in this election year and what has the mainstream media brought to us? Nothing. They have not swayed anyone, enlightened anyone or brought us information none of us didn't know. If that's not a sign of uselessness I don't know what is.
I can't even say I get my news predominately from TV anymore. I read probably 70-100 articles a day from english language papers, websites, news organizations, opinion sites etc. I think many of you probably do the same thing. That being said what is the mainstream media?
Would the Drudge Report that got almost 12 million visitors yesterday, 264 million in a month and over 2.8 billion in the last year be mainstream? I can tell you that if even 9 million of those daily visitors are unique Drudge has more readers than any of the alphabet networks have viewers for their evening newscasts, more readers than any newspaper in America and beat the weekly viewership of MSNBC (I think your local access cable channel beats MSNBC so that's not saying much.). Rush Limbaugh claims 20 million unique listeners (That listened at least 15 minutes.) a week, is that mainstream? I don't know what DU or Freerepublic's readership is, let's pin it at 2 million each for the sake of argument. That makes those two sites bigger than all newspapers in the U.S. besides the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and all editions of the NY Times.
Long and short of it, the media habits of people like us are the deathknell of the mainstream media. I don't think any single one of us trusts any single source of information entirely. As much as I watch FOX News I know they have spin, I frequently like to see commentary on MSNBC, CNN or BBC International. I hear enough varying points of view from all of you to drive me insane at times yet I don't come here to be in lockstep with everyone and I don't think you do either.
The bottom line with all of this though is we are hated and feared by those who controlled the 6 Mghz of network bandwitdh delivering video over the air, on your dish or through your coaxial cable. As much as I disagree with some of you and you with me if we were united in an effort or cause, wanting to prove something, someone or some event wrong and inaccurate we could. I've worked in newsrooms and I will say one thing, internet posters are more driven, determined and do more investigative work to back up their opinions and beliefs than 99% of local, regional or national producers.
I would put the best 5 researchers on any given site up against any national newsroom to get to the bottom of something and I guarantee you that the internet bloggers/posters would get deeper in facts than the professionals. If you gave them a budget they'd shame the investigative abilities of any traditional news organizations. That being said, I think it's obvious why the CBS story isn't dying easily. This scares everyone to death. Not just from credibility but viewership and advertising fallout. Not only that but would a reluctance by NBC or ABC to cover this story result in a halo effect where people remembered they tried to sweep troubles with broadcast journalism under the rug?
That said, you are feared, you are hated and so am I. There is no love lost for people that not only don't depend on traditional media but question nearly any piece of information sent down the pike short of the current temperature and sports scores.
USA Toady Article that sent me off on my rant.
What made me post this and think of writing about the topic was a pretty good point; that the mainstream media this election cycle is going to be known for 2 things, beating to death 30 year old biographies and document forgeries. I mean think about it, what else has been on the front pages? Where have discussions been about entitlement spending? Where have debates been for privitizing social security? School choice? Illegal immigration?
Now this isn't a rant that the issues aren't being discussed. They are, by us and groups and boards like us. Six weeks to go in this election year and what has the mainstream media brought to us? Nothing. They have not swayed anyone, enlightened anyone or brought us information none of us didn't know. If that's not a sign of uselessness I don't know what is.
I can't even say I get my news predominately from TV anymore. I read probably 70-100 articles a day from english language papers, websites, news organizations, opinion sites etc. I think many of you probably do the same thing. That being said what is the mainstream media?
Would the Drudge Report that got almost 12 million visitors yesterday, 264 million in a month and over 2.8 billion in the last year be mainstream? I can tell you that if even 9 million of those daily visitors are unique Drudge has more readers than any of the alphabet networks have viewers for their evening newscasts, more readers than any newspaper in America and beat the weekly viewership of MSNBC (I think your local access cable channel beats MSNBC so that's not saying much.). Rush Limbaugh claims 20 million unique listeners (That listened at least 15 minutes.) a week, is that mainstream? I don't know what DU or Freerepublic's readership is, let's pin it at 2 million each for the sake of argument. That makes those two sites bigger than all newspapers in the U.S. besides the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and all editions of the NY Times.
Long and short of it, the media habits of people like us are the deathknell of the mainstream media. I don't think any single one of us trusts any single source of information entirely. As much as I watch FOX News I know they have spin, I frequently like to see commentary on MSNBC, CNN or BBC International. I hear enough varying points of view from all of you to drive me insane at times yet I don't come here to be in lockstep with everyone and I don't think you do either.
The bottom line with all of this though is we are hated and feared by those who controlled the 6 Mghz of network bandwitdh delivering video over the air, on your dish or through your coaxial cable. As much as I disagree with some of you and you with me if we were united in an effort or cause, wanting to prove something, someone or some event wrong and inaccurate we could. I've worked in newsrooms and I will say one thing, internet posters are more driven, determined and do more investigative work to back up their opinions and beliefs than 99% of local, regional or national producers.
I would put the best 5 researchers on any given site up against any national newsroom to get to the bottom of something and I guarantee you that the internet bloggers/posters would get deeper in facts than the professionals. If you gave them a budget they'd shame the investigative abilities of any traditional news organizations. That being said, I think it's obvious why the CBS story isn't dying easily. This scares everyone to death. Not just from credibility but viewership and advertising fallout. Not only that but would a reluctance by NBC or ABC to cover this story result in a halo effect where people remembered they tried to sweep troubles with broadcast journalism under the rug?
That said, you are feared, you are hated and so am I. There is no love lost for people that not only don't depend on traditional media but question nearly any piece of information sent down the pike short of the current temperature and sports scores.
USA Toady Article that sent me off on my rant.