Why Blogging Matters

This article by Juan Cole is a must read, both for its explanation of why bloggers are vital to a free democracy as well as its indictment of the corporate media. Excerpt:

If we were mainstream media we would be wholly owned subsidiaries of General Electric, the Disney Corporation, Time Warner, Rupert Murdoch, Viacom and so on and so forth. Ninety percent of cable channels are owned by the same companies that own the big television networks . . . If we were the mainstream media, we would be accountable to CEOs and editors and advertisers, all of whom have motives for suppressing some pieces of news and highlighting others. You might think to yourself that this is a diverse enough group that the story would still get through. But with media consolidation, fewer and fewer persons make the decisions.

And I'm with Mr. Cole on another important distinction. Let's quit saying "mainstream media" and call it what it is: corporate media.

Totalitarianism doesn't necessarily have a political party as its controlling force. Sometimes it can be called "General Electric" or "Wal-Mart."