Another, perhaps deeper, source of unease among journalists collecting a check from a media company is the simultaneous revelation and discovery that there are a great many people who collect no check from any media company that are simply much better writers, editors, and checkers.

NO. No change at MSM. Only start of big fight against editors, writers, secretaries, journalists,
janitors in one person-bloggers

As Hugh Hewitt says in his new book, "Blog," we are entering a transformational period as revolutionary as that of Marting Luther's time.

No longer could the Pope and the Catholic Church (Read MSM) control the free flow of the news of the day, human thought, creativity, science and information.

See The Power and Politics of Blogs - Blessed be for the Internet and the Blogosphere, Freedom . . ., and Geo-Political Strategic . . . in an anthology of essays at:

Link Here

Freedom is bliss, but only those who have a pure and total respect for truth will shine.

I read that fool at MSNBC Hardblogger (and sent an email telling him off) who's agenda of self-protection couldn't have been clearer. No respect for facts or truth, but simply a desire to keep making good money in liberal agenda setting.

He might make good money if he blogs to his choir, but he won't if he wants to keep the MSM in the business of egregious slanting of news and not covering what exposes liberalisms foolishness.

A decent perspective, and one I've been pondering off & on recently.

I've long said to any who would listen that anything you wish to learn about is somewhere on the net. I've used it for learning web design, programming, networking, computer repair, new operating systems, foreign languages, etc etc. Its all there, if you're not interested in pr0n or games.

And the very same is true for news and current events. Its the transparency and immediacy that draw me. CNN may have been the first 24-hour news service, but it pales in comparison to having simultaneous on-the-spot average people acting as reporters all over the world.
And what was the reason CNN caught on, again? It had immediacy, though not enough transparency. Still, you felt that it had more of that than, say, CBS, at the time. No more.

Biggest/latest problem is the blog-for-pay thing. If it all remains a gift economy, things are a little more trustworthy. To my current viewpoint, anyway.
Maybe even that will change as paid bloggers get fed scoops and gift bloggers fact check and verify and amplify. If its all kept aboveboard it won't break. Too much.

Still, this newer aspect of blogging as a serious emerging enterprise: Its a curiousity in many ways, but also inevitable, just the latest incarnation of the old Temporary Autonomous Zone concept.

I've some really off-the-wall questions:

Does anyone remember the 'promise of cable television'? What we ended up with, and why?

I just wonder if some folks in MSM and entertainment are spending long hours thinking "How did we miss this? Now, how do we put a leash on this?"

Nice piece. I think there is one additional force behind the obvious frustration of the MSM. They are, to an extent, more limited in what they can write and say. They have editors to please, profit motives to placate (surely most annoying) and a hidebound culture which binds them to their existing norms. They are not as free-wheeling as blogs and they cannot so easily undo, modify or disown a position once put out there. Thus, they are naturally slower and more cautious, which just weakens them more.

Does anyone remember the 'promise of cable television'? What we ended up with, and why?

I sure do. I remember being told that cable television would bring more viewing options, more points of view, and massive improvements in both quality and quantity of entertainment.

It delivered on all of that. Spectacularly well.

I wish I was wrong. However this is a war.WAR.
Right-left. Bloggs-MSN.
Horse on last legs is kicking. Guttenberg revolution
# 2 it could, be. But knowing this is not going to help shoot at enemy, or dig trenches. Optimism is good thing if is leaning on something. Do not forget
Big media- big money. Multi dinero multi fucky-fuck.
We are not talking, how nice is to have blogs. We must talk how nice would be to have blogs in 2015 or 2020.

What's truly stunning about this struggle is that the MSM has had years to consider this new technology. It's taken them nearly 8 years to even acknowledge the existence of blogs. Even now, in 2005, it seems as though much of Big Media still thinks 'bury head in sand' is a workable approach.