The "Oft-Derided Mainstream Media"

It's the job of the Chicago Tribune to make you eat your spinach on a front page paper plate, says ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson. Yes, the same Charlie Gibson from Good Morning America, that great hard news show... though I think he goes by Charles now.

"The fact that people are going to the Web and gravitating toward news that they want makes it more important for somebody putting together the front page of the Tribune to say, `Well, it's still important for you,'" he said.

That may sound elitist, but I think of it more as the 4th estate of an informed society...

Gibson adds, "You are choosing the particular kind of news that's interesting to you. We become more important because our mission is to expose you to things you wouldn't have clicked on."

Phil Rosenthal wrote about it in the Trib this week: Gibson thinks old-style news more vital now


I'm with Charlie. I think people benefit from having the myriad sources of information distilled to a digestible, nutritious form via the mainstream media. This also touches on J.P.'s idea that pretty soon people will just pick their news a la carte, and if they only end up with jellybeans and Starburst, then so be it. The cavities are their problem, right?

I have faith in the general interest of the masses to seek out what's going on in the world... George Will would say I'm terribly naive... But I agree that the mainstream media's function will become more important, not less, as Apple Inc.'s multimedia devices, YouTube campaign videos, and spinning blogheads proliferate. And furthermore, I think this is why MSM will survive -albeit, in a multimedia format. As I've said in the past, it's not the medium but the content that will matter. There is an AUDIENCE who wants the balanced, informed and informative source of news. And I think it's a big one.

I know I don't have time to sift through a lot of junk to find a kernel of goodness...

Rock on, Charlie.

LT