[ExI] death of print news

[spike]

> Subject: Re: [ExI] death of print news
> 
> spike wrote:
> 
> > ...caused me to recognize a big advantage to the coming death of print 
> news...Balanced reporting will 
> be accomplished, and misinformation can be greatly reduced.
> 
> Yes, but I think that there is a cost you're not taking into account.
....
> 
> We may end up losing public accountability once people are 
> glued only into their own information channels in an infinite 
> sea of information... Lee

Interesting take, Lee.  It looks to me as tho it would create exactly the
opposite effect.  The coming age of exploding news channels, we get a
plethora of amateur reporters.  An example is the YouTube phenom; a specific
example is the reporting of a 17 yr old girl from Afghanistan being flogged
for refusing to marry the local warlord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crfs8YsZPGE

Stuff like this has been going on since forever, but suddenly in the past
five years, it is all as close as your keyboard.  Cell phone cameras catch
it all, anywhere on the globe it occurs.

Another example: instead of reading about former Illinois governor Blago in
the papers, accepting whatever they choose to tell us, anyone can google the
actual conversation transcript or even the audio if one is sufficiently
curious.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1321610,blagojevich-calls-oba
ma-expletive-120908.article  

It looks to me as tho we are truly entering a time which we talked about a
lot here about 10 years ago: the dramatically increase in the transparency
of government and society.  We have the potential of weeding out government
corruption.  Granted the recent trend has been for society to become
appallingly more tolerant of government corruption.  We have a long string
of federal government appointees who are tax cheaters for instance,
including the head of the treasury.  They somehow manage to be affirmed
anyway.

spike