Monday, February 14, 2005

Move over, Ford, Dow Chemical, Enron...

Perhaps the message of Rathergate and Easongate is pretty simple: the MSM is an entity which is not immume to the normal laws of behavior of corporations or large human organizations. Despite the claims of priestly conduct, journalists are subject to error and bias and require oversight - just like lawyers, doctors, stock brokers, and meat packers. The MSM has demonstrated this necessity for other human organizations and institutions, now the shoe is on the other foot and they are, of course howling in pain. This is completely understandable behavior.

This oversight should not be the domain of government - certainly not! - but can be provided by ... competition. And we're now entering an era where competition to provide information and to check facts on a rapid global scale is possible. To call all the bloggers involved in the Jordan fiasco morons and vigilantes would be like, well, saying all columnists are like Maureen Dowd. And that's not fair.

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