R.I.P. Journalism

There has been much talk about new media kicking the ass of conventional journalism. First of all, there is nothing new about the "reporting" being conducted online. The only thing new is the channel in which the information is disseminated. Propaganda is as old as language. What is new and startling is that society is confusing blogging with journalism. This blog is pure opinion; I've conducted only minimal research and the rest comes from that bouncing-ball playing ragtime tunes between my ears. The reason I used the word startling is that we are allowing the lines between blogs and journalism to blur to such a degree that we are surrendering our skepticism -- something mother nature instilled in humans to keep us alive long enough to procreate.
I enjoy fly fishing. When I blog about fly fishing you will come to know the caffeine-charged thrill of a brisk wind blowing down out of the Trinity Alps, rippling the surface of the river. You will understand how I scope out the surrounding flora, consider the season, the flow of the stream or river, select a fly, and why a cold-water trout is more enjoyable to catch on a fly than to lull it into eating a worm. You will understand a spiritual component of fly fishing. You might even be satisfied that you have read all you need to know about fly fishing. And of course you would be wrong. I am still a relative amateur, and by definition that means I know less about what I am talking about than 90 percent of other fly anglers out there. You will learn nothing about how the sport evolved, because, well, I haven't a clue. You would not come to know about the environmental ramifications of catch-and-release fly fishing vs. hook-swallowing bait fishing. You certainly wouldn't be told what Billy the bass fisherman and his cousin Bubba think about Billy's fly-fishing neighbor. Instead you will be sung to. A siren's hymn to the sport. You will appreciate, but you will not become fully enlightened. Mark Bowden (a journalist in the truest sense, and author of "Black Hawk Down" and "Killing Pablo") wrote recently in Atlantic Monthly that "work formerly done by reporters and producers is now routinely performed by political operatives and amateur ideologues of one stripe or another, whose goal is not to educate the public, but to win (his italics). This is a trend not likely to change."
That is sad. Ultimately it will be up to us, news consumers, to place value on journalism, to seek it out and know the difference. Otherwise we are destined to devolve into a Stepford Wife society, suckling off the teat of writers who want nothing more than to lure you into the romantic comfort of a river you already know too well.