Newspapers have much to answer for.
By Richard Davis
We conservatives are being cautioned repeatedly these days not to become too elated over the demise of mainstream newspapers. “Cork the champagne, sweep up the confetti, and put away the party hats,” advised MSM journalist Rick Henderson recently in National Review Online. Newspapers are public watchdogs, he wrote, and no one else is ready to assume that mission. There’s some truth to that, and, characteristically, some bias.
As watchdogs, newspapers aren’t the Dobermans they once were. Liberalism increasingly dictates what they will and won’t bark at, while shrinking staffs provide an ever-diminishing check on communities and governments. There’s no reason to believe others won’t step up in time and perform the job equally well or better once these monopolistic dinosaurs relinquish their hold on the local marketplace.Nationally, newspapers have much to answer for. They didn’t so much as growl before the two major calamities of the past 50 years: 9/11 (and the rise of radical Islam) and the economic crash that now engulfs us. Their first response to 9/11 was to blame America, absolve Islam and rush out to find examples of American racism toward Muslims (an ongoing project).
A forewarning on the economic crisis would have required, among other things, a critical examination of the sub-prime mess. That involves minorities, and that’s restricted territory. On the other hand, agenda-driven stories about the racist practice of bankers, realtors and mortgage brokers were invariably front-page news and helped lay the foundation for this disaster.
And it didn’t require the Obama candidacy to tell us that newspapers are virtually the house organs of the Democratic Party (which is why an industry bailout may soon be in the offing).
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/conservatives_and_the_death_of.html