There’s a lot of talk on both sides of the aisle today about Wall Street Journal assistant editorial features editor Joseph Rago’s piece on the demise of the media and rise of the blogosphere and National Review editor Rich Lowry’s su…

As you say Mark, there are plenty of bad blogs, bad TV, bad sports and, as you didn’t say, bad news reporting or journalists/news outlets. I read a report in yesterday’s Boston Globe about carbon emissions growth in the Northeast (New England and eastern Canada). It cited a recent study by a group that was identified, late in the article, as an environmental advocacy group. Their report was the only perspective given, no interviews with scientists (to confirm or rebut), no reports contradicting, nothing. Following my reading of that article I can only describe myself as partially informed on this issue. That, is crap journalism.

Personally, I’m happy to sift through the chaff to get to the wheat. I’ve learned over time which news outlets are reliable in getting the facts correct. I’ve also got a list of blogs that I can trust.

Why do the MSM keep pushing us to make a choice? I suspect, as Comrade Gwedd says, that there is some truth to the idea that they feel threatened.

It is a well known fact amongst zoologists that animals, in general, only attack when they feel threatened. Seems to me the good editorialist must be weary of the “death by a thousand small cuts” he and his ilk are suffering.

Well, they deserve it. For more than 50 years, the MSM has deemed itself above criticism, above reproach. Suddenly, they find the rules have changed and there is a new player in the game. Too bad. Adapt or die.

To my own mind (whatever is left of it these days. sigh.) the current situation the MSM finds itself in is naught but a self-inflicted wound. They sit insulated from society and pompously pontificate from their pulpit about all manner of things. They claim to voraciously fact check items, and yet a cursory examination of any section of any paper will likely reveal sloppy and unattributed work.

The grey whore claims to be the “paper of reknown” and yet fails to condemn the thuggish/fascist behaviour of journalism students at Columbia. The NYT claims to know what is best policy for Iraq, and yet depends upon the AP for most of it’s copy, with the AP taking it’s cue for stories from stringers who may *(and in some cases are) propagandist shills for the terrorists we are fighting. The AP’s own reporters rarely, if ever, venture into the field in Iraq, preferring the comfort of a hotel bar to conduct their research and interviews. Some integrity indeed!

I have more faith these days in Blogs than in ANY of the MSM, as I have little faith in any sort of objectivity from the latter. They have failed their own audience, and their own mission, and the resulting decline in subscriptions and the turn towards electronic media is a direct result of that. Hence this screed from Mr. Rago.

Respects,