The Future Of News Reporting

Conor Friedersdorf pens a good piece on the story behind the ACORN story at The Daily Beast. I think he should lose the "here I propose" approach, but the idea is good. Still, there's much more going on here in a larger media context I'd like to address.

So here I propose a less sweeping piece of legislation: it ought to be legal for any citizen of the United States to record any elected official or employee whose salary is partly or wholly paid with taxpayer dollars, whether he or she is a police officer, an esteemed United States Senator, or a lowly community organizer. That rule would help undercover sleuths keep government and the enterprises it funds accountable, whether through ideologically motivated activism, journalistically motivated investigative reporting, or whatever mix arises in this new era of democratized media.

Fox News was an early bellwether and it's already fairly obvious on the blogs. Now, Big Government, at least early on, seems to present tremendous potential for the Right going forward as a thing that's both old and new develop as we go - New Media that is.

As much as news media is moving forward, it's also going back. That should be welcomed by the Right and center-Right, though the Left, despite any alleged ascendancy of the Netroots, is going to do everything it can to maintain the status quo.

The concept of an objective media has always been something of a modern myth constructed by people in need of a profession and unsupported by the history of media itself. Media was always skewed, or partisan in America. Hence the this city Democrat, or the that city Republican Gazette.

The conventional wisdom is that the Right lost the old media war. The new media war has only just begun. No longer will factions and even individuals strain to elevate their angles, slants and opinions into some monolithic mainstream press. Now, main street will have its own media presence with many voices competing publicly in the battle of opinions and ideas.

See Instapundit for more:  

By ignoring important stories, the Legacy Media are creating new competition whose presence they’ll regret. They could have forestalled that by simply doing their jobs.

And here for more on how the MSM blew the ACORN story. But it doesn't matter so much anymore. It was never theirs to get. There will be a host of new sheriffs in town going forward and, instead of gunfights, they will fire ideas, opinions and stories at one another not bullets. And thanks to New Media it will mostly play out in the public square as hasn't been the case in America for years.

Ironic that it's in the best interests of conservatives to welcome the change, while progressives in the form of old media are most likely to resist any real change for as long as they can. 

Comments

[Peach]

"But it doesn't matter so much anymore. It was never theirs to get. "

that's not true Dan. They had the story over a year ago and because it made them so 'sad" that it involved Obama and that the TRUTH might help GOP they canned it.

They HAD the story. It's suicide in order to help and protect their precious and CORRUPT party.

[bandit]

It's been said a million times but the MSM has just devolved into the propaganda wing of Dems. Why would they pursue anything that will ahrm them?

[MICHAEL SPENCER]

The reason the so-called MSM did not report on Acorn is because, no one cares. This is a nothing story that has serious racist overtones. Also the historically inaccuracies and shadiness contributed to the non-coverage. Any coverage done by Fox News and the news media is almost certain to be false, racist, inaccurate, and unprofessional. We the people can only take so many misrepresentations about Bill Ayers, Acorn, tea-party crowd sizes, WMD, socialism, bithers, Muslims, and the silliness about this outcry about government spending. And what really kills me about the so-called new media is this: Almost every day the new media complains about the New York Times and what the paper is not covering or is covering. But the new media talks about how irrelevant the New York Times is. Do I have to point out how silly this is?

[John]

The propaganda media will continue to loss what little creditability they have until only the far left DNC will be their only viewers.
The print industry is already on the far side of the hill, local paper will probably survive because they only deal with local events that the locals can readily check.
The people can no longer trust the propaganda media which is why Fox has become so popular they may not get it right all the time but at least try to provide a balanced account. The propaganda media has been dead to me for the last 3-4 years and I have no desire or intention of visiting that sewer in the near future.

[Neo]

I've long ago resolved that in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, if there is a method or device that could determined that a public official, any public official, is lying, stealing or in any way appearing to be less than proper, it will be outlawed. No other pieces of legislation move through the legislative process faster than those that protect politicians.

[Bruce, NV]

"Here I propose"? Much like Stacy's favorite, "Herewith, a primer..."

[M. Simon]

MICHAEL SPENCER,

Of course it is a nothing story. That is why the House and Senate voted to defund ACORN. That is why the Dem. Attny General of New York is investigating them. Because it is a nothing story.