Roger L. Simon writes about the revolution in the structure of political information (my term for it) in which we find ourselves.

When the history of the current American... scratch that... world media revolution is written, the Summer of 2004 will occupy an interesting chapter. We are in what might seem to be but an early phase of monumental change, but we are within only a five—letter word of everything going topsy—turvy. That word is, of course, money. The mainstream media, whether it knows it or not (and I think it does), lives in mortal fear of a serious income stream heading toward blogs, even worse being redirected towards them.

After that, who knows what would happen? The one advantage held by the MSM, the ability to pay for research, would be vitiated. Already blogs, working for nothing or next to nothing, provide information unavailable elsewhere (from Iraq, for one obvious and crucial example). Taken together, they have a raw research capability beyond what any newspaper or television network could conceive. Not only that, they have the potential for more sophisticated and original analysis of those events because there are no gatekeepers between commentators and readers.

There's more, as always with Roger, well worth reading.

Posted by Thomas   8 25 04