2004: The death of the major media.

Date published: 12/28/2004

THIS YEAR marked the death of the major media in America. And that's a good thing.

Op-ed columns can be prone to overstatement, but a quick look at the evidence shows the truth: The mask was ripped from the allegedly "neutral" major media players this year, and hip-hip-hooray.

For years--decades, really--the major newspapers, led by The New York Times, and nearly all of the television news networks, had protested when frequently charged with left-wing bias. Methinks the media doth protest too much--and so, apparently, does the rest of the country.

In 2004, bloggers--online, independent sources of information--became power-brokers. Two instances of this stand out, one involving the network news, the second involving the print media.

In the most infamous case, CBS News abandoned even the pretense of objectivity, and went after President Bush with both barrels. It aired (and stuck with) a clearly fabricated story about the president's military service, releasing the lie at a point calculated to inflict maximum damage to the Republican's campaign.

Because of the persistent questions raised by bloggers, however, the network's agenda became glaringly clear. Its bluff was called. It lost.

Bye-bye, Dan Rather. And good riddance--though we shouldn't expect the longtime slant at CBS to suddenly change.

A second, less-known blogger impact was in South Dakota. According to an article at opinion journal.com, South Dakota bloggers played a key role in the defeat of longtime obstructionist Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader. "South Dakota Republicans decided that the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, which dominates the state's media since it's the only paper with a statewide circulation, was hopelessly biased in favor of Mr. Daschle," writes observer John Fund.

So, a local history professor and his friends "collaborated on blogs that constantly reminded voters of contradictions between Mr. Daschle's voting record and his statements in South Dakota, as well as the Argus Leader's refusal to acknowledge them."

Bye-bye, Tom Daschle. And good riddance--though we shouldn't expect the longtime slant at the Argus Leader to suddenly change.

Bloggers have begun to do the media's job. Don't forget that on election night, bloggers of all political persuasions were more accurate than networks in predicting vote results. While the networks promoted exit polls taken in heavily Democratic areas, bloggers reported actual polling station results.

Date published: 12/28/2004