Internet, Bloggers' Half-Truths Are Killing Newspapers and Journalism

if the newspapers and mainstream media actually reported the truth instead of being equally hypocritical by releases half truths themselves then we wouldn't need the internet for our news source. they wont talk about FEMA camps or the military conducting police activity in the U.S. but well hear all about how great the health care plan is that is conveniently predetermined for us to accept when we dont even know whats in it. give me a break i have family that live next to the NAFTA highway being built right outsode their door and still the news denies it. so dont be quick to judge when you do not have all your facts.

joe of KY 3:40AM November 06, 2009

I am a journalism student in the UK and have extensively studied the American media.

Probably the main reason why a lot of newspapers are closing is because the political ideology of neo-conservativism, from Reagan to Bush Jnr., allowed the right of the media to have both an economic and an ideas monopoly which ultimately left its citizens naturally depoliticised and therefore not interested in the news.

And now the economy has failed due to the same consumer-driven, wasteful, polluting people, companies and people weren't saving during the good times etc. so again, many newspapers can't survive.

Blogging is pretty rubbish to be honest, there will always be a place for good journalism, but the internet is obviously changing things.

People need to be interested in the news, the recent election of Barack Obama looks like a nod to a new age. And we need to find a way of making the internet pay somehow, maybe through subscriptions and advertisng. Pieces on the internet cost nothing to produce.

Kirsty 7:18AM April 28, 2009

This is stretching it a bit: “used to protect readers and consumers from being targeted for commercial or political purposes, that old-fashioned edited newspapers and magazines used to (and to a limited extent, still do) provide.” That was never true.

On the contrary there was always the problem that traditional news outlets were always very slow to inform their readers of big news stories that didn’t fit the editors’ political interests. For example, twenty years ago James Hansen testified before congress trying to scare us about global warming. See his predictions in figure 3(a) & 3(b) on page 7 of this PDF from his own published article (journal page 9347):

http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/1988/1988_Hansen_etal.pdf

Real scientists know that such long-term climate forecasts are not possible. No one has ever demonstrated the ability to make such predictions accurately, and journalists would know why not if they cared to look into it. The most recent global satellite data published by the University of Alabama at Huntsville proves that Hansen was completely wrong. This predicted warming never occurred:

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/HANSEN_AND_CONGRESS.jpg

As you can see, 2008 was even colder than 1988. But we shouldn’t have had to wait twenty years for the truth. Journalists should have identified Hansen as a crack-pot and noticed that he had no track record of being able to accurately predict such things. No one has the ability to accurately predict climate on that time-scale. It would be like predicting the ups and downs of the stock market over the same time frame, or the weather. Had Hansen predicted what actually happened, no one would have seen the need to waste hundreds of billions of dollars. Now the politicians have stimulated much more of this wasteful spending, to be paid for by your grandchildren (ironic how they claim to be protecting the children from doomsday when they’re really bankrupting the children’s future with false fears). Here is more background on this deliberate hoax perpetrated twenty years ago:

http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/hansens_anniversary_testimony/

For a list of 31,478 scientists who signed a petition opposing the man-made global warming theory, as well as a peer reviewed journal article detailing the evidence that disproved the theory, please follow this link:

http://www.petitionproject.org/

If the global warming prediction failed that should be big news. But the failure of journalism’s favorite theory is a hard stone to pass. This is even worse than Newsweek sitting on the story of Monica’s blue dress until after Clinton’s re-election. The Internet eliminates this bias, because the entire spectrum is out there. We are free from the news media’s political blinders. Journalists have a long history of not citing their sources on this debunked theory. They still act like it's a foregone conclusion.

Barry of CA 6:17AM April 26, 2009

I have no sympathy for the media! Look at some of the recent scandals involving " reporters " such as the disgraced Dan Rather and the more recent attack on a citizen, exercising their constitutional right of free assembly, by " reporter " Susan Roesgen at the Chicago " tea party."

I make it a point to notify the networks that I am boycotting their advertisers products and also send emails to these companies advising them of my displeasure with who they support with their advertising dollars. Maybe if we hit the networks in their pocket books they will start reporting facts.

Remember what the liberals did to Anita Bryant because she did not support " gay rights "

and they forced the Florida orange juice producers to drop their sponsorship of Anita Bryant? What ever happened to " free speach?"

George Hotaiing of NY 8:05AM April 25, 2009