Eventually there’ll be some thought put into what the media is shoving down our throats….they’ll get sick of *the little people* bitch slapping them down with fact.

I doubt web logs will ever be more than just one blogger’s opinion. I get ptetty disgusted by the *elite* bloggers who act as if they know what they’re doing.

It’s like Mom always told me, if you say it like you mean it, if you say it like it’s fact…people will buy it, hook, line and sinker…because you sound smarter than maybe you really are.

I learned that in Propaganda 101.

Corporations ruined the media. If the media of the Watergate era were controlled by the huge conglomerates that control the major networks and the cable news channels of today, Watergate would have been treated much like the current war has been treated, i.e. sweeping it under the rug. Modern news is all about packaging and ratings and things like that and not reporting the news. It’s about the almighty dollar.

I seriously doubt that the Washington Post of today would have the balls to run Woodward’s Watergate story. I was two years old when Watergate happened and four years old when Nixon resigned, but I get the impression that journalism back then was actually about reporting news and telling us what we have the right to know.

News is no longer about news. It’s about money. The idealist in me hopes that bloggers as journalists will give mainstream news outlets the kick in the ass it so desperately needs, but the realist in me says it won’t happen.

Short and pithy enough?
Actually, Drudge broke the Lewinsky story, if you remember, so it began about 1998.

Nope… you got it right with:
Modern news is all about packaging and ratings and things like that and not reporting the news. It’s about the almighty dollar.

Did you ever wonder why September 11th coverage went “commercial-free” after a few hours on TV? It was because all of the advertisers pulled their ads.

When the deadline Bush gave Saddam was up, we got phone calls and faxes from all our clients to pull their ads from tomorrow’s paper.

They didn’t want their ad sitting there in case (God forbid) our troops were slaughtered or Israel was nuked.

When JFK was assasinated, one company got so many “how could you think of selling at a time like this???” complaints from customers, they had to put out a full-page apology in the Washington Post.

As far as bloggers… well, it’s easy to be ballsy when no one can reach you.

In my case, I was asked to “be careful what I say” about a certain corrupt individual by my publisher. Though I was very careful, I decided it was best to pull the three posts…

This guy’s lawyers have tried to sue the paper a number of times (even targeted my department in one of them), and would probably go after me personally…

…and there would be nothing the paper can do to help.

Not that I have anything valuable to be sued for… but it just made for a very sticky situation. And I don’t think your average blogger wants to find themselves in that spot without a high-powered corporate attorney.