Hypothesis: Nature abhors a vacuum.
Corollary: Given a vacuum, nature allows the law of the jungle to reign.
Application: Mainstream media has failed in its duties, creating a vacuum for activists to do something about it.
Like most things on the Internet, blogging has begun to take its real-life counterpart by storm. A conservative-leaning “reporter” Jeff Gannon, a.k.a. James Guckert was investigated by Americablog.
Later, it was revealed he is a gay prostitute.
The story was also commented on by Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” Specifically, Jon Stewart, our hero in fake news has taken a chance at blasting the mainstream media for not only failing to dig deep enough to find this information, but also their response in calling bloggers unmanaged, unedited and untrustworthy.
Sure, there’s room to blast bloggers, due to the rampant conspiracy sites touting stories like “Bush implanted a GPS in my left nostril and is now sending me Nazi skinhead spam directly into my skull.”
But, let’s face facts, the Internet has always had a plot of ground set aside for the lunatic fringe.
Most people who’ve been on the Internet for a little while know where these places are, and tread carefully around them.
To be fair, take another look at Americablog. Scroll down the site and look on the right side to see the creator’s credentials.
He’s been a traditional reporter, speaks five languages, has appeared on numerous news shows on a frequent basis and has received journalism degrees at one of the nation’s top journalism schools.
Compared this with Jeff Gannon, whose only journalism experience before his first appearance in the White House was a two-day, fifty-dollar journalism seminar.
So the White House blasts homosexuality in one case and then accepts an inexperienced, unaccredited homosexual “journalist” to play partisan lackey in another? Was Gannon supposed to stand out to us as a model reporter?
When investigative journalists do some tough reporting and then have enough integrity to print the truth, I’ll return to occasionally turning on CNN or picking up a Tulsa World.
When the Dan Rathers of the world have finally stopped pulling lies out of their derrières to drive up ratings in a corporatized media environment, I’ll click the close button on my Web browser for a little bit and check out what they have to say.
When I can find more than just partisan hackery on shows like “Crossfire” or “Hannity and Colmes” (an example of the most irresponsible journalism conceivable), I might once again turn off my computer and stop reading blogs to find out just what exactly is going on in this world.
As it is right now, only the blogs are telling me.
And to those in the mainstream media, spewing forth political punditry on stations such as CNN and Fox News, plus the major “alphabet soup” news organizations?
My message is simple: You brought this on yourselves, and the law of the Internet jungle is starting to win. Don’t come whining to us when we, the people, stop listening.
Here’s to a truly free press.
Originally printed in the Daily O’CollegianFebruary 23rd, 2005
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