Why MSM still matter

OK, I'm probably a little biased but I think Barron's Online editor Howard Gold's right on the money with his arguments about why the world still needs the mainstream media:

... as influential as they have become, bloggers simply can't do what we do.

There are a couple of obvious reasons why. First, we get paid for what we do, and in a capitalist economy that's the way talent is recognized and rewarded.

Although journalism is far from the best-paying profession (and more people seem to be leaving the field for better remuneration elsewhere), the most talented journalists just aren't going to work for free.

Also, journalism, like any other profession, has certain standards. In our case, that includes fairness, an attempt to be objective and the ultimate goal of discovering something that's true and important and sharing it with others.

To do that, reporters need to work the phones constantly, contact old sources and meet new ones, pore over documents, follow breaking news over the Internet, pursue tips, do searches to gather new facts and then ultimately write or produce a story that tells readers or viewers something they don't already know. Oh yes, and meet impossible deadlines, too.

Then, they have to get it past their editors, the "gatekeepers" that bloggers love to demonize. ... If we're doing our jobs, we will constantly ask reporters how they know something is true. Is their source reliable? What ax does the source have to grind? Have we gotten comment from people we mention in the story? Is the story itself fair? And how does this go beyond what else has been published or broadcast on the subject? That's how some stories get top billing while others never see the light of day.

If they work properly (which, of course, they don't always), these professional standards become checks and balances, preventing rumors, accusations or thinly veiled political screeds from being reported as fact.

Few bloggers have editors who can save them from themselves and few break any big news. They generally react to original stories that appear elsewhere or link to items some mainstream news organization has already reported.

So, like it or not, they need us more than they're willing to admit.