t must have been easier to do politics before the Internet came along. Increasingly, it seems, every aspect of public service -- who lobbies whom, who takes whose campaign donations, and much more -- is available online for public inspection. And for every politician whose job is harder in the age of the Web, there's a boatload of journalists whose jobs are easier. And not only journalists, but citizen-watchdogs. It's one thing for information to be public, but it's another for it to be available. These days it's so available, it's scary.
Editorial: Web makes life easier for the watchdogs
By SwampBubbles - Posted on December 19th, 2007
That's not what's scary. What REALLY scary is the nearly autistic nature of today's so-called journalists. Now wallowing in information, they take orders more than ever. Investigative journalism died quietly in the 1990s. So it probably comes back to your other conclusion -- that it's up to citizen-watchdogs. However, outside of corporate identity and protection thereby, today's citizen-watchdogs are fairly vulnerable.
For those of you who doubt the death of American investigative journalism, there are a bunch of organizations for helping you see that truth. FAIR, Project Censored, etc. You might also pick up the excellent book "Into the Buzzsaw", which shows in example after example how real investigative journalists were being fired behind the scenes as Corporate America asserted almost total control of the news reporting industry. It didn't take long at all before the profession of investigative journalism understood the new rule: "Cross corporate interests only if you plan to end your career."