The upside of web-based journalism is that everybody gets a chance. The downside is that everybody gets a chance. I can’t really get on board with the demonization of credentials with phrases like “the media elite” (just like doctors, airline pilots and presidents, I prefer reporters and commentators to be elite) and the glamorization of inexperience with phrases like “citizen journalist.”
When I read the Times or The Wall Street Journal, I know those reporters had to have cleared a very high bar to get the jobs they have. When I read a blog piece from “BobsThoughts.com,” Bob could be the most qualified guy in the world but I have no way of knowing that because all he had to do to get his job was set up a website–something my 10-year-old daughter has been doing for 3 years. When The Times or The Journal get it wrong they have a lot of people to answer to. When Bob gets it wrong there are no immediate consequences for Bob except his wrong information is in the water supply now so there are consequences for us…
Not to be unoriginal but Beck and Limbaugh are eye-poppingly awful. It would be easier to buy their love of America if they didn’t have such hate for Americans. They’re my generation’s Joe McCarthy–tarring anyone who disagrees with them with schoolyard epithets and, of course, being “un-American” or even on the side of America’s enemies–but they reach a much, much larger audience than McCarthy did. They appeal to the worst in the worst among us and squander an opportunity–all those eyes and ears–to inspire. I’m a fan of the two-party system and a fan of debate. It’s only by having smart people (“elites”) who disagree with each other that we arrive at what we hope is the best solution to a problem.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member