For decades Americans got their news from three primary sources: newspapers, radio and television. Printed newspapers have been around for centuries, and network television newscasts became hugely popular after TV sets became ubiquitous in the 1960′s. But today both are in a serious state of decline. Why? Two new and extremely popular competing media: talk radio and news blogs.
Talk radio actually got the ball rolling about a decade ago by giving folks an alternative to the same old left-leaning news dished being out by the “mainstream media”. Virtually all successful talk radio programs are conservative in nature, and they tend to be more “fair and balanced” than the network news programs. This new outlet helped level the playing field quite a bit by giving conservative voices a chance to be heard for the first time in decades. And guess what? Conservatives are still in the majority in America!
Next, along came the phenomenon known as blogging, and it has turned out to be the straw that broke the back of the liberal mainstream media once and for all. Today, the vast majority of Americans get their news online, and most of that online news is delivered via thousands of independent bloggers and a growing number of dedicated online news sites.
One of the most influential of all the news bloggers is Andrew Breitbart, the fearless genius behind Big Government, Big Journalism and Big Hollywood. These three blogs have become recognized in recent times as news breakers that rival the mainstream media of old. In fact, it was Breitbart himself in conjunction with a couple of brave young citizen journalists who brought down the ultra-powerful and ultra-corrupt ACORN organization via a series of brilliantly captured videos of various ACORN employees engaging in some quite un-American activities.
Thousands of citizen journalists like Andrew Breitbart have forever changed the way most Americans get their news, and they have also managed to increase our trust in the veracity of the news. Television news is now a mere shell of its former self, and printed newspapers are quickly headed for extinction. But the bloggers are here to stay. And I for one am happy to see this amazing change take place.
Amazing is correct…