"A lot of people will repeat back to me and take it as face value something that they read on the Internet, and my line to them is you have to vet information."  -Tom Brokaw, former anchor of NBC News

"The Internet is an open sewer of untreated, unfiltered information, left, right, center, up, down, and requires that kind of filtering by anyone." –Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and best-selling author

When Tom Brokaw and Thomas Friedman made these statements as guests of David Gregory on Meet the Press, they were discussing the recent firestorm surrounding the “Green Jobs Czar,” Van Jones, a self-proclaimed Communist, who believes the 9-11 terrorist attacks were an “inside job,” plotted by the CIA and Israel. During the panel’s conversation, the general assessment was Jones had been unfairly “targeted” by “extremist right wing” bloggers and the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. At one point, Gregory pondered on how the new media is so fast that “You can be a target real fast.” By the end of this episode, these “real journalists” argued that since the evidence against Jones did not come from “proper” journalistic news sources, it excuses Jones of his radical ties. Case closed…or is it?

Looking back on that Meet the Press episode, it was evident that the primary concern for these “real journalists” was focused more on how citizen journalism, made possible by the outlets such as the Internet, is not “real” journalism. The so-called “hype” that is generated by these “wannabe” bloggers against the leftist policies of Obama is unacceptable as news. In their opinion, these are not newsworthy stories, and the bloggers should quit insinuating their opinion as being “newsworthy.” They would rather the blogosphere leave the news making to those journalists who have cut their teeth in the liberal mainstream media.  Bloggers are therefore the problem, not unelected radicals wielding unconstitutional powers over Americans.

Friedman, Brokaw and Gregory, like their colleagues in the old liberal news media, are concerned that their world is literally crashing down around them. They see the internet, blogosphere and talk radio as a threat to their profession. Gone are the days when there were only three main television news divisions that controlled all news gathering and media resources, as well as full control over what content would be on the nightly news.

Newspapers are going out of business by the hundreds. The New York Times is in such a financial hole that it had to sell its building and lease back office space from its new landlord in order to raise cash. The liberal old-school media elites have lost the monopoly on information, and with it, the ability to mold their content in a way that favors Democrats, liberals and left-leaning issues, while at the same time tailoring and choosing stories that portray Republicans, independents, conservatives and moderates in a less favorable light. No longer can the Charlie Gibsons and Katie Courics of the world dictate “what is news” to the rest of us. However, they still insist on trying, and their ever dwindling audiences prove just how unsuccessful their arrogance has failed in turning the tide.

Veteran mainstream journalists view bloggers as nothing more than renegades in the basement, writing whatever they want, without regard to vet sources for reliability or researching and fact-checking as “real” mainstream journalists do. They do not believe that stories are really newsworthy unless it is properly parsed by the likes of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and so-called “reliable” print media, such as the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, etc. Of course, they exclude Fox News and conservative talk radio as the mainstream media do not consider those outlets to be “real journalism.”

Ironically, Fox News outperforms all the other cable networks combined in terms of their viewership ratings. Sometimes, Fox News outperforms all of the other news networks combined, including the original “Big 3” networks. Talk radio’s audiences are growing rapidly, as are the conservative and independent websites now populating the blogosphere. This large audience, increasing daily, is in sharp contrast to the biased mainstream media. This is the same audience which has fled the other networks to escape the daily pro-Obama bias. Fox and talk radio do not insult the intelligence of their audience as do the other networks, and they do not take their audience for granted. These media outlets simply deliver the news, and offer opinion on their shows. However, they always balance the opinion shows with proponents from both sides of the issue or topic of the day.  

Over the past decade, we have seen a website scoop the regular media with the major story of the Monica Lewinsky affair in the Clinton Oval Office. Since the Drudge Report first beat the mainstream press to that story, there have been countless attempts to belittle those who run independent news and opinion websites. Matt Drudge has been mocked and looked down on by “real journalists” for his pioneering role in the establishment of independent reporting vie the internet. In the late nineties, they saw internet news by independents as nothing more than a passing fad. Yet today, the Drudge Report is one of the most-visited websites on the internet, with some 24,000,000 visits daily. That is 24 million viewers a day! Drudge is constantly being used as a reference for news, not only by conservatives, but by those in the mainstream media, because Matt Drudge has a reliable track record for accuracy. His viewers understand that his website has become a proven, reliable source for news. Rarely has Matt Drudge posted anything on his site that has not been thoroughly verified and checked for accuracy. And when there is a rare story that turns out to be inaccurate, Drudge immediately posts retractions and clarifies the reason.

Late in George W. Bush’s first presidential term, we experienced a veteran “true journalist,” CBS News anchorman Dan Rather making up parts of an expose that criticized George W. Bush’s service in the Air National Guard. This was during President Bush’s campaign for a second term against Democratic presidential candidate, and Vietnam veteran John Kerry. Known as the Killian Documents Controversy, or less formally as “Rathergate,” it involved Dan Rather reporting on a 60 Minutes segment that George Bush had allegedly used his family influence to avoid service in Vietnam by getting into the Texas Air National Guard. The report, which aired less than two weeks ahead of the presidential election, also made claims about Bush not even fulfilling his obligation to the Guard. The entire basis of the story was based on six documents, four of which were cited and presented as authentic during the broadcast. Shortly after the episode aired, however, it was discovered that CBS News had not checked the documents for authenticity. Led by an army of internet bloggers doing real fact-checking, combing through the documents and looking at the sources, the blogosphere immediately brought the inaccuracy of the documents to the forefront. The attention to the lack of fact-checking by CBS News, and Dan Rather in particular, started to bring the network’s credibility into question. When forensic and typography experts later found the documents as forgeries, CBS tried to defend itself as having been misled by the document source. However, the damage was already done to the credibility of the mainstream press.

Although Dan Rather had acknowledged that the sources were forgeries, he still insists to this day, that he sincerely believed, at the time, the documents were authentic. This lack of vetting the sources and fact-checking by a major network news organization and its veteran “journalist” anchor, led to Rather’s downfall at CBS. Ironically, it was an army of internet bloggers and news forums that proved to be credible news sources by doing the work the current mainstream press accuses them of not doing, but were not doing themselves.

As we have watched the mainstream press practically “smother and cover” their chosen presidential candidate, Barak Hussein Obama. By doing everything possible to protect his past and cover his true radical associations with assorted communist, union and other leftist groups, the mainstream media no longer seen as a reliable source for news. Instead, we see the mainstream press as more of a supermarket tabloid, swooning over the “glamorous” Obamas at every turn while labeling anyone not in the Obama camp as “extremist,” thus making them fair targets for character assassination. Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, and other victims of the liberal mainstream media’s actions to ruin those who disagree with the Left are examples of how pathetic the old media have become. Almost daily, Palin has been ostracized, insulted, misquoted, been lied about and have have daily experiences of dealing with attacks against her family. The mainstream media have shown absolutely no shame in their continued assault on Palin, hurling a daily dose of vitriolic fabrications against her. This is a dangerous tactic by the mainstream press that treats citizens as not sophisticated enough to form their own opinion. However, it is not lost on the average American viewer that this very media would do the exact same to them and their families if they happen to publicly disagree with the viewpoints of the liberal press.

Just last week we watched the “Balloon Boy” story on every mainstream network, covered in a sensationalist way, only to find out that the press had again been duped, victims of an elaborate hoax. The mainstream media’s continued slide to obscurity culminated this week when a radical leftist group called the Yes Men, acting as real spokespersons for the United States  Chamber of Commerce (USCC), held a press conference to explain that the USCC had  made a 180 degree turnaround on their opposition to Obama’s intended climate change bill and were now supporting it. Several prominent members of the mainstream press were in attendance. When members of the real USCC entered the room, uninvited, to explain that the speakers at the podium were imposters, and that the press should disregard statements made by the fake USCC spokesman to instead, direct their questions to the real USCC members, they were rebuked by reporters in the room.  Members of the press scolded the real USCC officials and asked them to quiet down so they could continue hearing what the imposters were saying. It took awhile for the press corps to catch on that they had been tricked into a phony press conference by a radical group. Regardless of this fact, CNN decided to invite the main “spokesman” of the fake group to a formal interview on CNN with Rick Sanchez, in which the Yes Men imposter continued calling for radical environmental climate controls. This was after the phony press conference!

To watch arrogant, old school, liberal, mainstream “journalists” pontificating their message that a story is not “really news” unless it comes from their sources, organizations, or pens, is to watch a dying breed who are not living in the real world. They are no longer indispensible, and it terrifies the media elitists. Their accusations against new media for not properly gathering facts, vetting and verifying sources, and their almost vitriolic attacks against members the new media clearly demonstrate their arrogance and sheer hypocrisy. At the same time, their attacks against conservative talk radio and Fox News, accusing their audience as nothing more than “right wing extremist simpletons,” magnifies the desperation of the mainstream press.

The mainstream media is running scared at the loss of their absolute control, and they should be. They no longer matter.

Case closed.

Sources:

1)     http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34153-2004Sep19.html

2)     http://www.dailytexanonline.com/opinion/viewpoint-lessons-from-dan-rather-1.2029888