Gutenberg’s typeface looked like calligraphy. The first movies were filmed stage plays. The first radio broadcasts were concerts or announcers reading the news. The first TV news broadcasts were guys reading the news with a microphone on-camera.

It took the emergence of visionaries such as Orson Welles, Hitchcock, Eisenstein, etc. to take the then-new media to new levels, and it generally took a couple of decades for the new medium to move out of the gee-whiz lookit-this-trick stage. (FWIW, I presented on this topic to the National Association of Broadcasters back in 2000.)

The blogosphere has accelerated that path by an order of magnitude. Consider that in 1994 only a few people had even heard of the World Wide Web, much less were using it as a daily source of hard news and opinion.

It’s not change that’s scary as much as the rate of change.

If we think for one minute that MSM wouldn’t reach their own pinnacle of name calling and intolerance were they not choked by “political correctness” we are sadly mistaken.

Levy is a moron. And that picture!! He’s ugly too. How’s that for name calling?

A ragman can get the best table at Elaines if he pays with gold. The same applies for information; facts will out regardless of who bears the message.

Nope, it actually makes perfect sense. Itís called economic self preservation. Steven Levy and other ìprofessionalî journalists rightfully sense that their way of earning a living is undergoing a dramatic revolution. Jobs will be lost. A number of established journalists will be compelled to find another occupation. The days of implied job security are over. Wouldnít you be scared?

I think it’s odd that blogs were cool back when the Deaniacs were exploiting new media, but now they’re just carefully orchestrated hacks of the White House.