MSM v blogosphere

Will Collier over at Vodkapundit has a fantatsic and I think entirely reasonable piece on what expectations the blogosphere has of the MSM. I think Collier speaks for a majority of serious bloggers when he says:

". . . What I'm interested in is not destruction, but rather disclosure, transparency, reform. You can boil all of the above down to one term that ought to be the watchword for everybody in all of journalism's myriad forms: honesty. I don't mind a biased press (more on this later), but I do mind a dishonest press . . ."

The MSM claims the mantle of journalistic keepers of the fourth estate, yet time after time they have demonstrated utter disregard if not outright contempt for the audience they are there to serve.

I watched Chris Matthews Hardball tonight and was mildly disappointed, but not surprised to see that he still doesn't want to get it. Matthews did an entire segment on the three at CBS who are apparently refusing to step down, and not once did he mention "blogs", "bloggers" or "blogosphere". As if the CBS house of cards collapsed of its own accord.

I have had occasion to deal with local media types in TV and print from time to time and have found their work ethic utterly lacking, and generally have learned to trust that maybe 50 percent of what they report is accurate. Where do the major MSM recruit their talent from? This cesspool of mediocrity.

Hugh Hewitt also has a great post on what the MSM can do to avoid kicking the hornets nest of the blogosphere. It goes like this:

". . . Here are the rules: Don't serially slander the military as assassins and torturers, and you can say whatever you want at Davos. Don't pass off obviously forged documents as super-"Scoops!" in the middle of a presidential election, and you can intone all the absurd "anchor" sayings you want. Don't cover for plagiarists, and you can be the off-the-cliff lefty editor for as long as you want. Don't say the memory of Christmas-Eve-in-Cambodia is "seared, seared" in your memory and then say "oops," you were mistaken, and folks won't question your credibility on other war-stories. Don't appear to endorse segregation, and you can be the Leader. These aren't high bars. Cross them. . ."

Unfortunately, as Matthews demonstrated on his show tonight, he doesn't want to get it. The MSM will continue to wallow in their own Hubris for some time to come.

Another great read, this topic at the WashTimes. -SpinDaddy