Blogs and the MSM

Unlike a lot of bloggers I like newspapers. Without the MSM (mainstream media) a great many of the bloggers who fancy themselves pundits would have little to say. My friend Tom West had it about right in a column he wrote for his little publication the Budgeteer last week. He pointed out that most of what the blogging community writes about originally came from newspapers.

Having an opinion is easy. Having someone else’s opinion is even easier. Since the Republican paranoia about the press bubbled over in the 1980’s Republican’s believe that all reporters are liberal and report accordingly  That’s what group think will do once it has you in its grip.

Yes, reporters tend to be liberal. Surveys of reporters have borne this out. I think it comes from their college liberal arts degrees. The “liberal” in liberal arts means well-rounded more than it means politically liberal. In fact, that’s long been one of the aims of liberal arts colleges compared to community colleges or trade schools. Liberal arts graduates are expected to read widely, if shallowly, about a great many things.

I’ve always been struck by how many reporters, no matter how politically liberal, take their educations and turn it into healthy skepticism. Most have been quite open to conservative criticism of big government and our permissive society. I think its much more accurate to describe journalists as pragmatists rather than as polemicists let alone liberal polemicists. The blogging community on the other hand has a lot more polemicists. What is a polemicist? Think of them as being persuaders or, if you prefer, propogandists.

Because young people are abandoning newspapers in favor of second hand but free blogs I’m a little worried about our future. So, long as they don’t retreat into something like Fox News simply to have their prejudices reinforced America will likely survive this phenomenon and retain its open minded and vibrant culture.

Now that that’s off my chest, I can go back to my polemics.

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