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                                               September 9, 2013

I've complained often about the
state of the news media...
                                     OLD_NEWS

Is it possible that there's been
some recent improvement?
                                        Perhaps a "sea change",
                                        to use an old Old Media
                                        cliche.

    Information-based "blogging" seems
    to be coming into it's own, a
    product of easy availability of
    data and analysis tools, with the
    major media outlets picking up on       And one fears, co-opting
    some of the better writers.             them: e.g. Ezra Klein
                                            is having a bit too much
                                            fun with the DC-hobnobbing.

    Wikileaks, Snowden and friends
    seem to be helping to clue people
    in to what's going on, with
    writers at the Guardian UK
    continuing to hammer the US               Further, there are things
    establishment.                            out there like the dailykos
                                              that has it's limitations,
                                              but does a really good job
    "Mother Jones"-- which despite            of linking news to action,
    conservative rhetoric has always          making it easy to donate
    seemed to me to be very                   money to causes you've
    moderate, perhaps even wimpy--            been convinced are worthy.
    has pulled off some good stories
    of late.  Breaking the Romney
    47% video was the most famous,
    but perhaps more interesting are
    things like Kevin Drum on the
    effects of lead exposure on
    crime rates.


I'll make a typically grim, pessimistic prediction:
This is all a temporary phenomena, born of a new
media explosion that hasn't yet shaken out:

      FROM_THE_RETRENCHES

Eventually, everything will reach maturity,
and it will be a steady state that supplies
the masses with the trash they really want:

      OLD_NEWS



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