Thank Goodness For The Blogs

From David Neiwert writing for Crooks and Liars:

I left newsroom work in large part because people like Ziegler and his movement-conservative counterparts have no tolerance for any point of view other than their own -- and holding such views, or moreover even merely being properly skeptical of them, is evidence of a "liberal bias." By the late '90s I realized the reflexive fear of being accused of being "librul media" by these mau-mau masters was preventing me from reporting thoroughly, accurately, or honestly. Good thing blogging came along.

Although I was/am not a journalist, I stopped watching Mass Media television (and reading print newspapers) for the same reason. It has cracked me up for years that the right wingers continually claim "media" is "liberal," which belies the fact that the major corporate and individual owners of most of mass media are -- right wing nutjobs! And these owners have over the past 15 years, slowly but surely, tightened the noose around the neck of mainstream media's ability to shed light on real and important topics and issues. Instead, mass media has turned into a circus of performers who shout, scream and berate people, who fail to report the "news" or when they do attempt to do so, they lie. Or my favorite, taking a truth and pairing it with an untruth, and masquerading it as "just telling both sides, folks."

Yup, thank goodness for the blogs.