Glenn Reynolds‘ latest TCS column, “A Media Meltdown?” provides a roundup of the latest evidence that, not only is much of the mainstream media obviously biased, but that their collective incompetence and reputation for half truths is a major factor in the rise of the blogosphere and other alternative media outlets.
[W]hile the media’s willingness to side with Kerry has been striking, it’s also like the proverbial thirteenth chime of the clock — not only wrong itself, but calling into question everything that came before. The loss of credibility that has come with that, coupled with the press’s poor performance on all sorts of topics (don’t these people know how to use Google? don’t they realize that we do?) will be a long-lasting blow.
The media barons should be worried. The real problem is that to succeed in a business, you have to be better than your competitors at giving people what they want or need. The mainstream media needs to ask itself whether it’s capable of doing that — and, if not, how it needs to change.
Indeed.
