We've Democratized the Internet...for Lunatics!

In an ever burgeoning world of media savy bloggers, camera phone paper's, Wikipedia, Youtube, Drudgereport, Instapundit, etc, the establishment press has felt the pressure of an oversaturated, highly competitive news market where the consumers are quickly becoming the editors. Some blogs have more daily visits than newspapers have subscribers. People are watching important events and interviews on Youtube rather than on network television. (Less commercials for Zoloft) Matt Drudge and Andrew Sullivan, bloggers on the forefront of the trend, have become internet celebrities with extremely popular webpages whose content travels back and forth from independent to institutional media sources. Drudge broke the Clinton/Lewinsky story before major news outlets wanted the liability. Sullivan is a frequent guest on television where elements of his blog are discussed in Charlie Rose's dark room. In this new age of media where the tendency to be a bit reckless and exaggerated trumps the need to be "detail oriented," and above all, exposure on any level trumps "accuracy," one should read and watch cautiously and do well to remember that www.PresidentBushisanalienwhoatemybaby.com may not have the fact checking department that CBS news does. No, wait, in the last election CBS news let the oracle Dan Rather report a made up story so I retract my last statement. They briefly considered changing their symbol from an eye to a muzzled mouth and their motto to: " No one lies on Jag!" -apparently an attempt to reconnect with the heartland. All jokes and Katie Couric aside, CBS did get crucified for the mistake and rightly so; whereas some internet news sources act without any fear of a retroactive review of their content. In fairness, most respectable bloggers bring their journalism ethics with them from other experiences. However the medium of the internet has created a genre of what I call "conspiracy journalism" i.e. journalism primarily concerned with less reported stories on secretive topics (defense,intelligence) and "exposes": facts strung together with a narrative viewpoint. Some of these individuals, Michael Moore, Alex Jones, etc have achieved national notoriety for their willingness to penetrate government facilities with megaphones spouting insane nonsense about the Bildeberg group. (What is brave about this? With cameras rolling and a crew behind them what is exactly the real danger? Do they imagine the fabled Illuminati hitmen of their lurid imaginations are going to jump out from behind a bush and attack them long enough for Alex jones to say "I told you so." - culminating in a new Fox special "When David Gergen attacks") Moore and Jones are both wealthy individuals who are cashing in on a psychological movement that gained momentum after the Kennedy assassination. Christopher Hitchens has referred to the JFK assasination as "the moment the psychic movement of the sixties started." Throughout the next two decades this movement used every assassination, intelligence leak, secret meeting, clandestine failure, display of nepotism, government miscalculation, terrorist attack, drug bust, emergence of disease, and example of dishonesty as facets in what I call : "The greatest story ever told-high." These events are strung together in attempt to connect and transform them from random meaningless occurrences, to meticulously designed precursors to a unified one world government takeover of the world. Just put this in context : (If the owner of a pizza place hires his son to work behind the counter-it's fine. If the C.I.A. director hires a family member-it's evidence of a Bavarian cult.) All the published lists of the members of Skull and Bones prove is that nepotism is alive and well at Yale. Who would've guessed. Also members of elite secret societies and mega money families rarely work at Denny's. Shocker! The fact that some groups like the Bildeberg group have secret meetings doesn't necessarily mean they are a shadow government, it means they want the opinions of their members respected. The military industrial complex is a simple give and take. Military needs industry, and on certain cases , like 9/11: industry needs the military. This relationship does require vetting as its motives need frequent examining. Democracy requires a transparency of government in these issues. Most of these contracts are public record. In the larger issue, most of everything revealed to us by Alex Jones is one google away. This information, some of it demoralizing, most of it embarrassing, and generally empirical proof of nothing more than incompetence, is out in the open for everyone to view. Jones' viewpoint, like others in his field (which is not as they would have us believe: a job) rarely diverges from the party line that world events are manipulated at the highest level by a one world government that secretly meets and worships Satan. (Satan apparently attends the Bildeberg conference disguised as a European diplomat. Ingenious!) It is a no brainer to say that the U.S. has been involved in some seedy transactions with other governments and private citizens. It is also fair to say as a matter of national security, much of what the CIA does cannot be discussed on the View. Also preferential treatment is given to companies that are run by former government officials. I don't know if this adds up to the darkly humorous tale told by Illuminati & Co, but there are certain things brought to light that need further examination. Democracy only survives on the tenacity of its citizens.: their willingness to probe and examine their government and exercise civilian control over it. However in the age of information, opinion driven journalism, and the internet, every crack pot with a vocabulary has some a forum and few deserve one.