CombatEffective - Where has my country gone?

I have been trying for some time now to put together some coherant thoughts on this subject. There are two problems with the drift away from the traditional news media outlets. One is when we all gather around the cooler, we no longer have any stories in common to discuss. Each of us has gotten our news from vastly different sources, with no common denominator. We then have to bounce our ideas off of people in far flung places (like here, for instance), leaving us with nothing in common with our own neighbors.

While I listen less and less to the national news, I still make a regular habit of watching the local news, for the reason above. I am fortunate to live where the main TV station is staffed mostly with (relatively) conservative people, and their audiance is mostly conservative.

The other problem is money. Most of the stories here begin with a paid reporter or journalist, and that means someone has to be paying for a news feed. At this point, I will not even fill out a registration, let alone pay for an Internet news feed. But I do subscribe to a daily news paper in the nearest medium sized city, and to the weekly in my (mostly) bedroom comunity. Very few of my coworkers subscribe, and if the trend continues, I think it will negatively impact the quality of journalists.

Currently there are already more corporate PR people writing "news" than true reporters and journalists. You think reporters and journalists are biased? Corporate PR people are PAID to be biased. And if the trend continues, they may be the only show in town.

TRex