Winners and Losers

Daniel Henninger, in today's WSJ.com discusses the fallout of this year's election on one of the traditional 'winners' in politics - "the media":

"Large media institutions, such as CBS or the New York Times, have been regarded as nothing if not authoritative. In the Information Age, authority is a priceless franchise. But it is this franchise that Big Media, incredibly, has just thrown away. It did so by choosing to go into overt opposition to one party's candidate, a sitting president. It stooped to conquer."

He goes on to suggest - and I agree - that in the long run, this is a bad thing for the national conversation:

"In fact, it's too bad this abdication has occurred just as political opinions have become overheated by the kind of electronic technology deployed in the 2004 election. We really could use some neutral ground, a space one could enter without having to suspect that "what we know" about X or Y was being manipulated. The problem with being spun day after day by newspapers or newscasts is that it gets tiresome, no matter your politics. You end up having to Google every subject in the news (Guantanamo, gay marriage statutes, Tora Bora, the Patriot Act) to find out what's been left out or buried at the bottom."

In his conclusion, he offers a suggestion that may make sense and provide an alternative to formerly 'neutral' media reporting:

"Here's a low-tech solution to a high-tech problem. Why don't we finally institute an American version of the parliamentary question period common around the U.K.? If the likes of Messrs. Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Powell, Snow, Cheney and Bush had to appear before the House in this tightly regulated question-and-answer format, broadcast on C-Span, surely the public over time would acquire a clearer sense of which ideas are competing for their support and vote. Let's get to them, before they get to us."

My only disagreement with Mr. Henninger is that the public distrust of the media has been present far longer than he suggests. I think the advent of new technology has finally made it possible for the disgruntled to voice this distrust to a larger audience than their family, friends and colleagues.