I have been reading plenty about the fears that the Television and print media are loosing ground to the Internet and bloggers as a source of news. And as I posted earlier I knew that I was missing the point as well. The mass media just like most of the reporters now are just repeating ‘stuff’ and not reporting the whole story. They never put the information into context, never illuminate the information into anything other than a mental monotone of words. It’s no wonder that no one listens to them any more, or worse yet listens and then gets it wrong.
Years ago I was on a Jury in a manslaughter case. (Trust me you do not want to be on a jury for capitol offense trial) I always thought that the nature of lawyers was to get at the truth in the case. But both the Defense and the Prosecution did more to withhold the truth than illustrate the truth. Both presented facts, in general terms, but what they left out was all the contextually important facts. We as a jury had to recreate the actions of what had happened. We had sat through a whole week of the trial, and then we spent more than a week deliberating, and analyzing what really went on.
This is what has happened to our very ‘legal’ and proper news in the mass media world. The lawyers have prevented the reporters from doing analysis of the news to prevent liability. So there is no real reporting, only information droplets dispensed from their sources are presented. Always legal deference can be applied. It’s always ‘Their’ information, ‘Their’ facts, or the ‘what your see is what you get’, the camera never lies. ‘We just report the news as we see it.’ And should things like ‘Bias’ be accused, well that’s not even a legal issue. You can’t call them a liar if they DON’T report the facts, only if they report the facts wrong.
And this brings us back to the Blogs. People are seeking the analysis that is missing from the news, they are seeking point, counterpoint. They have the news illustrated and illuminated to make sense of the world. Bloggers on their own are only responsible for their own opinions. Viewers of Blogs usually only visit blogs that generally reflect what the viewer is seeking. They receive the illustration painted in colors that are familiar to them. And if the mass media, afraid of the loss of revenue, seek to regain their viewers. The first place they will have to start is to, fire the lawyers, and get back to news analysis, and proper investigative reporting.