The Fifth Estate

The media you grew up with isn't just dead, it's decomposing.

There are no more Walter Conkrites on the horizon, the nightly network news everyone once relied on for information lost more than a million viewers over the last year.

Once powerful newspapers that lost relevance with the advent of the Internet are now relegated to the status of niche media. Thought of as the "forth branch" of government, the mainstream media has become so riddled with bias and cronyism, it is little more than a marketing wing for the political class.

Though people in droves have flocked to cable news shows and talk radio in search of independence, they're still very much within the mainstream, and receiving slanted coverage. I watch Fox News as much as anyone, but I harbor no illusions about their motto of “Fair and Balanced” coverage. Going out of their way to allow those with opposing viewpoints on, doesn't alleviate the center right skew in commentary.

The solution to the mainstream media's hidden agenda isn't more balance, it's more bias.

I contend that in a 24/7 news age, the citizen journalist is the surest guarantee of integrity. Bloggers aren't just open about having an agenda, they are explicit about having one lest you miss it. Because you're shown right up front their ax to grind, you are conscious of being influenced, and the experience becomes participatory. Citizen journalism is crowd sourced and distributed, possessed of an agility unmatched by traditional media outlets.

The blogosphere has become the fifth estate of modern society, the unfiltered voice of the people. Subscribe, keep reading, and I'll keep you ahead of the game.