Media lose their monopoly on news

In an op-ed piece about the media and bloggers, written by HELEN CONNELL, for the London Free Press, she writes this conclusion:

This doesn't mean media giants are in any danger of being made extinct by bloggers and podcasters. If anything is keeping the business side of the media awake at nights, it's trying to figure out how they can cash in on this new technology.

It does, however, challenge those arrogant enough in the mainstream media to believe people can't become informed without them. (Emphasis mine -HH)

This new medium requires more vigilance and a healthy dose of cynicism for those who use it. You have to challenge everything you read and hear online because there are no rules governing fairness or accuracy. In the world of the Internet, facts, fancy, thoughtful debate and deliberate hate propaganda dressed up as science all coexist. (Emphasis mine - HH)

It remains to be seen if MSM will be able to overcome their arrogance about new sources of information available to the public. As for "challenging everything you read and hear online", what's new about this approach? I have been doing this for years when reading MSM newspapers and watching MSM "newscasts". And to think that there are "no rules governing fairness or accuracy" (of online news and bloggers), I sure am glad that we can trust MSM to do due diligence and report only accurate and unbiased "news". (Dripping in sarcasm.)

But as political columnist Parker Barss Donham summed it up: "The Internet promises to achieve what no charter of rights can -- putting printing presses in the hands of many."