Obama Versus Blogosphere

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/09/dear-president-obama-blogs-fact-check.html

[Media monopolization since the 1980s]

"I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding."
· Barack Obama ·

Problems with the mainstream reporting:

• Widespread self-censorship by journalists.
• Censorship from editors and producers.
• Pro-war bias.
• Government censorship.
• And, of course, money.

The whole debate about blogs versus mainstream media is nonsense.
In fact, many of the world's top PhD economics professors and financial advisors have their own blogs...
The same is true in every other field: politics, science, history, international relations, etc.
So what is "news"? What the largest newspapers choose to cover? Or what various leading experts are saying - and oftentimes heatedly debating one against the other?
As blogger Michael Rivero pointed out years ago, mainstream newspapers aren't losing readers because of the Internet as an abstract new medium. They are losing readers because they have become nothing but official stenographers for the powers-that-be, and people have lost all faith in them.
Indeed, only 5% of the pundits discussing various government bailout plans on cable news shows are real economists. Why not hear what real economists and financial experts say?

"In reality, the best blogs offer far more fact-checking and
context than the mainstream media."
· Washington's Blog ·

[Source: www.washingtonsblog.com]