Raising (Rising) New Media

the old media are losing power to the new: "Mr Rather's retirement epitomises two broader shifts of power. First, the old media are losing power to the new. And, second, the liberal media establishment is losing power to a more diverse cacophony of new voices.

For most of the post-war era the American media were dominated by a comfortable liberal consensus. The New York Times was the undisputed king of the print news, while the network anchors lorded it over TV news. That consensus is now under siege. The attacks are partly coming from the cable networks�particularly from conservative Fox News. (Charles Krauthammer once quipped that Rupert Murdoch had spotted a niche market�half the country. Sure enough, Fox is now America's top-rated cable news network.) But old media also face a newer and more unpredictable source of competition�the blogosphere. Bloggers have discovered that all you need to set yourself up as a pundit is a website and an attitude."