If you actually wanted _serious_ and _excellent_ coverage of Iraq, you would have been reading Michael Totten and not the third-rate MSM propaganda.

Actually, print failure shouldn’t happen. These outfits have physical resources that blogsites do not. They have the opportunity to write things that others do not. They need a commitment to better jounalism, with new emphasis. No more, “If it bleeds, it leads.”

Blogsites could have the same thing, though. If they affiliate with each other, and set up an easy donation system, they could have a virtual paper. People all over could donate whenever they see a great article. Instant feedback. If a story is so good that it goes viral, instant wealth. This could provide the physical tools to supplant the MSM.

Subscriptions would work well with this model, too. Various articles would automatically arrange on the site according to your established tastes. Occasionally, off-site material would also find its way to you, instead of you having to search. The subscriptions would be shared out based on subscriber votes for articles, even for unaffiliated articles. Pro and con articles could be solicited from bloggers by the virtual newspaper, providing balance.

The effect of all this would be to employ good writers. If their stuff doesn’t sell, they will not get paid. Instant feedback, painfully administered. I could go on and on, because my mind is like that with ideas, so I had better stop, now.

For example, the Guardian newspaper has survived despite running on a multi million pound deficit for years, leeching profits from the other companies owned by the Guardian Media Group. Another? The BBC gets four billion pounds from the taxpayer from a yearly direct tax called the license fee which is brutally enforced with Orwellian tactics.

Bottom line – some US newspapers and broadcasters will become propaganda outlets with no need to make a profit or address audience outrage over their coverage. Shareholders who don’t care about a junk rating will be the same as the complacent members of the Scott Trust.

Oh wait, did I say what MAY happen?

“The concensus of responses to this post indicate that the “Old” media are committing suicide. My own take is similar: why support non-objective, propagandistic, yellowsheet rags?”

Naw the body of the press has been dead for years. It’s just that know the bloated head in the basket may finally clse it’s blovating mouth while we all bid it a fond adieau.