[thesummerwind]

From Snow;"Talk radio, the Internet and cable television have shattered the "mainstream" media's grip on the distribution of facts and ideas.

Now, you get a grip! At least as much as twenty five times as many citizens watch NBC, ABC, SeeBS, and CNN versus FoxNews every night of the week. Get your grip.

You're dreaming, smitty.

shattered the "mainstream" media's grip on the distribution of facts and ideas ............. all respect due, you're dreaming!

[mrsmith]

Whatever. Feel free not to 'ping' me.

[labard1]

When you start with Rush Limbaugh, add other talk radio, Fox news, plus blogs and sites that try to emulate Free Republic, you have lots of sources of news for people who are motivated to get information not covered honestly by the mainstream press. Yes, it would be nice to have more of a mainstream network presence today (even though its market share is steadily shrinking).

My recollection of old behavioral studies on political opinion formation showed that "opinion leaders" tended to have a much bigger impact on political decision making than any other factor. The information is readily available for people motivated to find it (which is a defining factor to be "opinion leaders"). Those folks have a much better chance to get good information today than they did in years past. Folks who watch Fox News are MUCH more influential than folks who watch Brokaw, just like readers of the Wall Street Journal are MUCH more influential than readers of USA Today, notwithstanding the lower audience/readership of the more influential sources.