The mainstream media (MSM) still doesn’t understand that it is facing an evolutionary change as large (for itself) as the one that separated the mammals from the dinosaurs.
This New York Times story discusses rumors that spread rapidly via the blogosphere that Bush had stolen the election–rumors that were swiftly shot down by others in the blogosphere.
Ever since the debacle of the CBS forged documents scandal, MSM commentators have been yawlping about the absence of "checks and balances" (i.e., fact checkers) in the blogosphere. What they fail to realize, as many bloggers have pointed out, is that the blogosphere itself provides checks and balances. If a blogger (at least one who is seriously enough engaged in political discussion to achieve prominence) makes a mistake of fact, he will quickly be informed of the fact by others in the blogosphere and, if he wishes to retain his reputation (unlike CBS), he will quickly make a correction or at least stop pushing a crazy theory.
The blogosphere thus has what the MSM does not–a set of real-time cross-examiners among its peers who are devoted to shooting down theories that limp when it comes to factual matters. It ignores what these cross-examiners say at its peril. The MSM has not yet realized that it is at this point.
What all this means is that the advent of the blogosphere has made more information available to real-time cross-examination, with a resulting shortening of the time it takes to shoot down erroneous ideas that otherwise would circulate through the press.
It is a Darwinian process.
The MSM doesn’t realize that the mammals are about to gobble up the corpses of the final dinosaurs.
GET THE STORY (NYT-noid REGISTRATION WARNING!).
I believe the MSM does “get it”. They just don’t like the facts.
ZF
And here I thought the headline referred to the Manhattan School of Music.
New York artistic types?
I doubt they get it either.
Well, it is the marketplace of ideas. One monopoly the MSM doesn’t want to see busted.