The End Of Dictatorship

The media is no longer the message, the people are the message.

I recall one Baby Boomer bragging that they "just walked into a newspaper in the 60's" because "they thought it would be cool to be a journalist."

I've often thought that journalists thought themselves a set above everyone else. I've read lots of blogs that surpass what is written in the paper. With the exception of Rex Murphy ... the guy is a wordsmith god. Don't always agree with him, but man can he write.

Another benefit in destroying journalism, is that most journalists are leftists. Now a wider range of voices can be heard.

Like this paragraph.

One of the most magisterial things the Internet is doing is undermining the previous writer/editor dictatorship. Suddenly, what used to be effectively a one-sided conversation in which the writer did all the talking has been turned into an agora in which a piece is dissected and often reconstructed by the readers – and if we ever get there, listeners and viewers too.

Axes/cuts are somewhat overused as cliches/metaphors by the hacks of today.
The old MSMers would say: declared redundant, showing a measure of compassion to their fellows.
Ahh, the old MSM had good manners, grace under fire, and expense accounts.
...-

"CTV cuts Canada AM jobs, axes Montreal morning newscast
CTV Television Inc. has laid off more than 24 employees at its Canada AM morning show, and axed its last remaining early morning local newscast in the country....(nnw)

What a great line - the sunshine one - will use that for sure

I think Strauss nails it with these two sentences;

"Suddenly reality isn’t what we are told it must be by some expert writer/editor but what we decide for ourselves it is.

Suddenly reading online becomes a democracy."

The leftist MSM has always believed that it knew best and would try to tell us what to think.

No bailouts for the MSM and shut down the CBC.

The "media" has no choice but to focus on restricting the internet.

Wait and see what happens next!

Tyranny of the MSM. What an excellent way to put a handle on it. Which is most important: to extol great fibs in artistic prose, or to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth in as simple a manner as language allows?

The difference between the velocity and veracity of shit and sunshine will continue to move in opposite directions at exponential rates.

The capacity of entrenched experts to recognize the difference will not change.

This is a good thing.

Syncro

He almost hits the target but not quite. The suggestion that this is just an issue of emphasis or not telling the whole story or not quite getting the research right ignores the reality that mainstream media are actually trying to manipulate and distort events to suit their agenda.

Now, THAT'S progressive.

The media thought they had become the new elite,information is power,but they used that power to betray the people and sold out what was once upon a time an honourable profession.

The MSM had the market cornnerd,the internet changed all that,they have a lot to lose; money,power over the masses,expect a backlash,they dont want punks off the street moving in on their turf...turf war coming up.

"I am not going to say there aren’t deep issues and discomfiture with this changeover to a readers' democracy – most specifically with questions of authenticity ..."

From his article. He did good up to here, and here is where he lost control of it, where the arrogance of the dictatorship remains. It is precisely because of questions of authenticity that the MSM have lost it. It is precisely because of authenticity that somebody, no, everybody else is running away with the ball, using the internet. The very ability to run and fact check both the written story and the spoken story, and thereby call out the MSM, is why they are losing it.

If the readership had trust in what they wrote, and what they published, there would still be strength in the written post, but there isn't. They've been tested and found wanting, time and time again. Constantly they've shown the dictator has no clothes. Now they're being shown the door.

If the media wants to survive they need to double down. Double the sales and marketing dept.

With the increasing power of computing, will the education system face the same challenges as the mass media? I forsee school children fact checking their teachers with i-phone like devices in subjects like history as the new future.

Mark Steyn had a great related comment to the dying newspaper industry:

"The US newspaper has deluded itself that it's been killed by technology. But there are two elements to a newspaper: news and paper. The paper is certainly a problem, but so is the news - or lack of it. If you're interested in news, the somnolent US monodaily is the last place to look for it."

And you can be sure in good ol'Canader that after the people's choice begets Iggy, the CRTC will tackle the dreaded Internet; just as they did talk radio. And lookout for the HRCs.

Dave; Steyn said it well. Glen Reynolds at Instapundit once said something similiar, that the killer app for the media was fact based news reporting.

I recall my (conscious) youth...the "50's"....the news-paper and life magazine were the news source and to an extent the radio. Then TV arrived with a shallow reportage.....

Then when they thought no one was looking the lefties infiltrated the universities, schools and media....

Then the internet arrived with AGW, and they were exposed.

My query is....would have GORE/HANSEN/SUZUKI/UN/KYOTO succeeded if GORE had not invented the internet?

no longer do we have to yell back at the radio.

the journalists with socialogy and psychology and who knows what will no longer be able to blather without facts.

knowledge is power.

Years ago people bought the paper for news by and large it was reported from both sides of the spectrum. I noticed the changes starting in the mid 60s they started printing their opinions instead of the news and slowly folks just got tired of being told what they think. There is nothing the matter with them giving those opinions but it belongs on the editorial pages not the news pages. TV news helped inform us in a way but was to brief. Gradually it evolved into what we have today. Today people by the paper for the grocery adds, car adds and paper to start the fire in their trash cans. Even 70 some year old retired truck drivers like myself get their news today on the internet. The press inflicted themselves with their ails and I have no feelings of regret over it I stopped being their customer a long time ago.

If the elite of the world would only listen to a few more truck drivers and common people we would not be in the mess we are today Bob. I totally agree, when the likes of Kevin Newman and Count Lloyd, Mansbridge try to tell us how to think, we say stick it city boys. Common sense tells most of us how to conduct ourselves, we don't need some 1500 dollar a month annoying journalist trying to shape our thinking.

Hey kids, you can comment on the article...I did. It was really, really, really fun.

Jay, didn't put yours through either?

Oh and extra irony for this part...

Sign your post with your first and last name unless there is a sound and clear reason for anonymity (if the reason isn't obvious, please contact us by email to discuss it).

Guess old habits are hard to break.

qwerty1 wrote: "With the increasing power of computing, will the education system face the same challenges as the mass media? I forsee school children fact checking their teachers with i-phone like devices in subjects like history as the new future."

Already happening in some classes - I've had it happen in mine (college/university level), but then I expect it to, so I've always tried to point out when I present facts and when I present my opinions. Interestingly, students have used it to fact check statements by other students and correct errors by their colleagues.

Idd, I for one am not a big fan of anonymous commentary, especially when posters start puking out questionable allegations.

idd, j-source moderates its comments - my comment is up now.

'the bear' agree with you somewhat on that, but there are ways you can control it with some effort, email registering, and IP banning.

I comment regularly on Breitbart as well, at first my comments were held, but now since I use the same nic and email they go through immediately now, and I expect that if I violate their rules they will ban me.

For personal reasons, I won't publish my name to any MSM organizations or sites unknown to me, mostly because I don't want to be bugged with solicitations, and I do suspect that it's for mail or call lists right off the bat.
Why do they need my 'real name' to hear my voice on line if I'm not being absurd, ignorant and etc., at the outset? Our government funded 'cat meat' scribes/trolls on line make me not want to publish this to anyone but those I've come to trust through my own judgment not their demands.
Personally I think some of the trolls are MSM folks trying to take down 'bloggers credibility'.

ldd wrote: "Personally I think some of the trolls are MSM folks trying to take down 'bloggers credibility'."

Surely you jest, as MSM journalists/agents/sockpuppets/astroturfers would never stoop so low as to engage in subterfuge against the very people they are supposed to be serving.