Let’s talk straight, Faithful Reader. Journalism is politics by another name. The idea that “the press” represents “the people” is, and always was, smoke & mirrors. The press isn’t objective; the press was never objective. The press, in its various manifestations, represents only those people who happen to agree with it.

And you know what? That’s fine. Honestly.

The real problem has been two-fold: (1) as the 20th century progressed, mainstream media started to pretend that its various organs (newspapers, TV, news wires, et al.) were objective conveyors of news, when they were (and still are) partisan filters of news; (2) mainstream media — the media that most readily reaches the mass of the people — became almost wholly dominated by liberal/leftist partisans.

That’s why it’s been so important that conservative media have sprung up over the past 15 years or so: talk radio, FNC, WaTi, WND, etc. Are they partisan filters of news? Sure. But they provide — and, because they do so, it’s become almost a by-word of derision in mainstream media — they provide balance. If you follow a story in mainstream media and in conservative media, you’d often be tempted to think they’re covering two different stories, the facts presented are so different and their presentation so different.

That’s how it’s ought to be in a free society.

James

(Just so you know, I always leave the above comment to let people know that I’m linking to their stuff on my own blog.)