Tax Lawyer's Blog

We recently wrote in Death of Blogging and Death of Blogging II about a proposal by the highly revered libertarian, Judge Richard Posner, to eliminate the right of bloggers to include properly attributed quotes and excerpts from mainstream media outlets in their online posts.

Now here’s another shot across the blog-bow.

This one is from the ubiquitous and powerful Rupert Murdoch group.

A stinging attack by John Hartigan, the CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited, labels bloggers and alternative media outlets as “political extremists”. Hartigan implies that bloggers should be jailed as they are in oppressive police states like China and Burma.

In a speech to the National Press Club, Hartigan savagely dismissed blogs as, “Something of such little intellectual value as to be barely discernible from massive ignorance.”

“Bloggers don’t go to jail for their work. They simply aren’t held accountable like real reporters . . . . It could be said the blogosphere is all eyeballs and no insights,” barked Hartigan.

“In the blogosphere, of course, the mainstream media is always found wanting. It really is time this myth was blown apart.”

“Blogs, and a large number of comment sites, specialise in political extremism and personal vilification. Radical sweeping statements without evidence are common.”

No one should be shocked that mainstream media is launching an all-out attack against bloggers.

Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken this long.

Let’s face it, print media is gravely ill and, like a wild animal that is sick and dying, it is now most lethal.

Here is my take on print media’s last stand.

Bad Print Journalism Created the Demand for Bloggers Not the Other Way Around

Hartigan completely misses the point.

Blogging hasn’t caused the widespread public mistrust of print media (”Print”), but, rather, Print’s often sloppy, agenda-driven reporting has created a hunger for alternative sources of news.

In other words, Print and not the blogosphere is the reason Print is dying.

There is, of course, more than a kernel of truth in Hartigan’s assertion that the blogosphere contains much nonsense.

But in America there have always been those who have negligently (or intentionally) disseminated false information to the public.

It’s the price we pay for a having a first amendment.

And, up until now at least, we’ve always been perfectly willing to pay that price.

By the way, have you wandered through a supermarket checkout counter lately?

Look at these Print headlines:

That’s Print, baby!

(Okay, I admit that last one might actually be true. Dennis Kucinich did endorse Bill Clinton)

Misinformation has Always Existed, the Internet has Merely Broadened its Scope

So is it really all that different today?

Has the Internet really changed everything?

Yes and no.

People are still making stuff up, attempting to defame, marginalize or belittle those with whom they disagree.

Only now they are able to reach more people, more quickly.

Lies have always been told, but today any Tom, Dick or Markos can geometrically distribute those lies at the mere click of a mouse.

And by the time you notice it, great damage has already been done.

What is the Answer? Do We Even Need an Answer?

So what should we do about it?

Should we amend the first amendment – change the copyright laws – as Judge Posner suggests?

Or should we make lying a criminal offense as the Murdoch folks suggest?

Bloggers should understand one thing: Newspapers are dying faster than a new idea out of Punch Sulzberger’s mouth. 

And the closer they get to their last breaths, the more stridently and desperately they’ll scream, scratch and claw at their perceived murderers.

That’s us folks.

We bloggers are killing Print media and we should screw are courage to the sticking place and gear up for a final showdown.

Call to Arms

It’s naive to expect newspapers as powerful as the New York Times once was to go gently into that good night.

Bloggers of all sizes and stripes should be able to come together on this issue.

The attacks are going to become more intense as we get closer to the end of Print.

So, bloggers of the world, unite!

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