So 'Blogs' are 'merely' to be fact checkers for the mainstream media eh?

Is this the kind of patronising attitude that is the best reaction the corporate media can come up with as a 'rearguard' response to the rise of independent media?

For so long, we have not only been ignored but have been slandered with the label that we're not 'real' journalists, as if being the paid hacks of giant corporations makes you a 'real' journalist. Moreover, the contradiction of being used as 'fact checkers' after many years of being accused of not being accountable is rather galling.

Furthermore, my own site is used as a regular source of news and information for the corporate media (and all for free of course), a further irony considering the vast resources the corporate media has at its disposal.

Is it that so-called professional journalists are simply incompetent insofar as they have the same (if not better) access to the plethora of news sources available as I do?

Or perhaps it's much simpler; corporate bias in reportage of the news. Sifting through the large databases available to corporate media does not in and of itself make for good journalism.

John was summarized as saying that right-wing bloggers were after the media which they perceive as liberal. I grew up in an era where the liberal side of most things had a proprietary sense about their causes and they were not shy about inimidating "regular folk" into silence with their tactics.

It's interesting to see the right-wing using some of the same tactics that have been used by the other side for generations.

Certainly we can all share our embarrassment at how both sides bulldoze the opposition with their rhetoric, but I can only applaud the development that there are now two sides to the media. What's also interesting is the way that this blogging has brought global issues, which most of us have felt unable to be part of, down to a level where the individual has a voice.

Is there a futurist in the house who can see where this will lead us in the next five years?

Google a look at perseus' blog survey from 2003. It's pretty interesting.