The Day Mainstream Media Died

For most of my adult life, my reading of the news has been a rather obsessive pastime. I follow at least four major national and international news sources, as avidly as possible. And, for a long time, I considered myself one of those guys with his 'finger on the pulse.' A current affairs buff, so to speak. 

Two days ago, I began to realize how very, very wrong that I was. 

Admittedly, I've been slow to adopt social networking technology. 

But the things that I saw concerning the iran situation filled me with both a sickening feeling and great excitement. Twitter, the online networking service that I have only recently adopted, made total bitches out of every major american news network. Even as late at 9pm est last night, they reported the protests were 'mostly peaceful.' Even Obama stayed largely silent as students were killed in their dorms, and one of the largest, most high profile demands for true democracy took place.

I have to tell you, I really believe that the media has become so convoluted with private interests and stupid filler that it is quickly losing it's effectiveness. Newspapers have pretty much gone the way of the dodo. All this talk of journalistic responsibility and objectiveness are moot points now, because you can get more 'real' news from the super subjective reports of anyone with a cell phone. 

A few months ago Rupert Murdoch wrote about news services having to charge for online content to keep themselves afloat in the long run. But who wants to pay for shitty content when you can talk to someone who is actually there for free? The mainstream media, which has been polluted by government and private interests, is no longer a viable source of information, but rather a means of control.