Today's newest exposure of the Main-Stream Media (MSM) signals what has been in the works now for some time. There is a well-organized and intentional plan in the MSM to undermine the Bush administration and on a more general level, be a cheerleader for the Left. The New York Times and 60 Minutes, purportedly the essence of journalism excellence, have been caught red-handed trying to pull the strings on this election like a mad puppeteer.
The election aside, these events have signaled the final decay of the MSM. But we all lose. While journalism has always been ideological, there was at least a movement that sought to report the news as objectively as possible. That inspiration has died out. It seems that at least a few media sources must have universal credibility to sustain the necessary civility and civil discourse through which an ordered polity must deliberate on the toughest questions of the day. You can't do what politics is meant to do if no one agrees on the facts or even what the problems are. While Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are excellent news sources because they let both sides speak for themselves, a massive chunk of the population refuses to get their news from these two bogeymen because of the slant of their editorial pages. While each's readership and viewership grows as distaste for the MSM rises, will it be enough to lay the foundations for a new era of national conversation based on a new newspaper or media outlet of record? My suspicion is that they won't (especially Fox in the drive for dollars) and that for those really interested in the news and what is happening, one will have turn to the Internet in general, and the blogosphere in particular. Stephen, what sayeth you?