From the most recent milblogging conference in the States, an interesting discussion about war reporting and blogging:

http://www.vamortgagecenter.com/blog/2008/10/30/new-cadre-of-war-reporters/

The situation in Canada is somewhat different than the U.S. because of the legal climate in which CF members operate - not nearly so open as in the U.S. - but many of the same principles hold true. First and foremost of those is that the mainstream media is becoming less and less significant as a filter/distribution channel for the participants in the news as the barriers to publication drop.

In other words, when you have a bunch of soldiers, diplomats, aid workers, contractors, and other participants in the events of the day on the ground in Baghdad, all free to offer their own observations and opinions, why exactly do you NEED a Baghdad bureau?

Worth thinking about if you're in this industry, I'd submit. Find a way to add value to the distribution chain, or prepare to get increasingly bypassed as you are now.

I don't read the newspaper anymore out of complete and utter mistrust - and those feelings are how I view the blatantly one-sided and Leftist suck-up TV news.
Michael Yon and Michael Totten do a much better job delivering acurate reportage from overseas - areas where I have travelled myself - than anything by the AP, Reuters, the NYT, or the LAT.

All is not lost. Murdock took control of the Wall Street Journal. While I didn't appreciate the UK editor he brought over, this paper remains one of the most accurate and least biased in print today. The news section tilts left to a small degree. The "opinion" section on the other hand is conservative and free market. I read this paper six days a week and no longer read anything else.

One of my uncles, who served in the Korean War, used to say that the Canadian coverage of said war was written in the bars of Tokyo.

The only exception was Pierre Berton, whom my uncle therefore held in great esteem.

This household absolutely purchases no print media at this point, and rarely watch those 'news/entertainment stupidity shows'

Just can't get over the feeling that the 'current crop' of journalists are just failed 'hollywood glitter bugs' wanna be's so going to the source of the story is beyond their abilities, best to keep bashing Americans and smile for the enemy.

Use to purchase:
(1)Daily, newspaper, sometimes 2 different ones.
(2) Use to have magazine subscriptions, now nothing and it's way better!
(not to mention not being hounded by endless junk mail as they 'sell' your name as they assume ownership of it.
(3) We use the lies and omissions from our MSM as a teaching tool for the young adults and adolescents in our family now. That's actually been invaluable, so keep it guys, my offspring already know that you're all a bunch of self serving elitists with no real grasp on the reality that we live in. We raised them to 'hate' being spoon fed fools.

This household ONLY uses blogs as our sources of information now.

If bloggers were doing a bad job the share values of MSM's would be holding steady, they are not.

There's reasons the layoffs are happening dudes.

Tomax, I think you spelled urinalistic wrong.

MSM is pretty much irrelevant. Don't check out "news stories" before printing them; usually include "spin" with the story; and try to make non-stories that are cheap to keep alive for days (eg Palin's wardrobe) replace stories that matter (like Obama's wide open political contributions setup for people like "Adolphe Hitler at 71 Reichstag Place)

I long ago stopped subscribing to the Edmonton Journal. And I occasionally read the Edmonton Sun...just for laughs.

Kathy's right, the mainstream media is toast. That is unless they get their shit together and start reporting, insted of spinning.

I don't see much hope for them though.

Sigh. The old media just hasn't figured it out yet that they were just the middle man between the reader/viewer and the man on the street being interviewed, etc. Now the man on the street is blogging instead. He's speaking directly to us, and his words aren't being distorted or spun. Long story short, we don't need the MSM. You've been pushed aside and we are finally able to get the goods straight up.

Please don't confuse The NYT with facts.

Junk status? How appropriate.

I'll second what Kathy Shaidle wrote.
For many years I was a avid newspaper, magazine reader and TV news viewer. Not now, I just don't trust anything you people write or produce. And that's the truth.

Are you kidding me? Have you so called "journalists" been so brain-washed as "usefull idiots",that as Kathy said,you've never even heard of Yon? But that should really come as no surprise. HE ACTUALLY goes out with the troops and locals into the countryside, so I guess he doesn't show up at the hotel bars that often. You guys and your papers are becoming useless even of fish wrappers!

Indeed, Kathy. Michael Yon has not only set himself up in Baghdad Iraq, but he also goes far above and beyond what most of the people who call themselves journalists today. He always travels outside the confines of a cozy military base, visits with the general population and often travels without any military protection.

He was one of the first to indicate Iraq could slip into civil war.

He was the first non-Iraqi to state that the "Surge" was a definite success.

This is why I trust what he says more than any of the other meagre journalists today. They have quite a lot to learn from Yon.

I've long ago concluded that the best way to become a REAL journalist via education is to avoid Journalism School at all cost. Journalism Schools churn out cookie-cutter leftists with marginal abilities in writing and critical thinking.

Instead, take dual majors. History and Psychology would be a good pairing, if one can avoid Politically Correct "teachers", or at least overcoming them by independent thought and study. Or Political Science and Economics. Again, try to avoid the Marxist "economists" or at least do real study around them.

Also-this is important-take numerous English classes and become a in-depth reader of literature and an articulate writer. This alone would put one above most of today's "journalists".

Like cliches, budding journalists should avoid J Schools like the plague. :-)

Imagine a world in which the newspaper's Baghdad bureau reported the facts as best they could determine them, instead of politically partisan on the spot instant analysis

Kathy Shadie proves some bloggers know much more than the "press".

Any wonder that "professional" journalism is to mainstream media what "iceberg" is to Titanic?

The "professional" media needed the dirt on Joe the Plumber...

http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/10/media-made-request-for-joe-plumbers.html

Leaving aside the great reporting done by Yon in Iraq, I wonder at the comment that this message needs to sink in with "policy makers."

Why would governments be concerned that bloggers do or do not have bureaus in Baghdad?

What is the inference here?

Thanks to bloggers like Kathy, I realized how biased and, frankly, ignorant most professional journalists are. I canceled my godamn subscriptions long ago.

And then there's also Bill Ardolino and Michael Totten (who has also manned reader-funded bureaus in Lebanon, Kosovo, northern Iraq, Baghdad and Georgia).

"Bloggers cannot replace what we do"

Thank God! Otherwise we'd all be in a state of confusion and wallowing in urnalistic white wash.

Just when I thought the "experts" at J-Source couldn't get any dimmer...

Michael Yon is a blogger who did indeed set up a Baghdad bureau, and relies upon reader donations to do his reporting:

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

And you mean to tell me you've never heard of the blog Iraq The Model, that's been online since the invasion? Or on the other side of the political spectrum, Salaam Pax?

Oh wait, those are ACTUAL Iraqis doing the on-the-ground blogging, and what do they know? After all, they're not white liberal j-school grads...

No wonder "real" newspapers are dying -- you guys really have no clue what's going on in your own profession, let alone in the rest of the real world.