Is It Any Wonder That Americans Are Turning Away From The Mainstream Media For Their News When Stories Like This Are Almost Commonplace?

The mainstream media has been losing a lot of its clout and revenue to alternative media recently. Newspapers especially have been hard hit as more consumers chose to get their news for free from the Internet, take for example the NY Times. The NY Times is hemorrhaging so much cash that it has had to seek concessions from the union at the Boston Globe, which is owned by the NY Times. When the union members recently rejected the proposed concessions management instituted a 23% pay cut across the board to stem losses. It now appears that the union and NY Times have reached a new agreement (http://tiny.cc/Globepaycut) but will these concessions save the mainstream media, probably not. The real issue is that the mainstream media has lost its way. More and more we are reading stories about the coziness of the press with our politicians take for instance the case of the Washington Post. As Mike Allen and Michael Calderone of Politico reported yesterday the Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Weymouth, had to cancel plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home after details of the event became public. The Post, for a measily $25,000 per salon, was offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors. http://tiny.cc/ojBOH Now the question is did anyone from Congress or the Obama adminsitration agree to attend these “salons” and if so so why? Were it not for the alternative media would this story have even been covered?

Politicians at one time use to fear the press but not anymore. Scenes like this one at recent White House press conference are all too often a rarity. http://tiny.cc/hXgKu I have to commend both Thomas and Reid for not backing down. Be they liberals or conservatives we need a press corps that is going ask the tough questions and not coddle our politicians. Luckily for the politicans and the Post, and unfortuante for us, it’s a holiday weekend so this story is likely to be out of the press cycle by the time Americans tune back in on Monday morning.