In this week’s National Journal blogger poll, the first question was “On balance, has journalism been helped more or hurt more by the rise of news consumption on the internet?” Eighty-nine percent of the Left and 65% of the Right said “helped more.” I was among the minority who voted the other way. My comment: “News consumers have been helped, especially for national and international issues. Professional journalists have been hurt, since the number of jobs in New Media journalism is much smaller than the number of Old Media jobs which are disappearing.”
Question two was “What do you think of the coverage of Barack Obama so far this year?” On the Right, 93% said “too easy,” a position shared by only 17% on the Left. I voted “too easy,” and added this comment: “Almost no accountability for Obama’s flagrant breaking of his campaign promises about ethics and transparency. Very little coverage of his administration’s endless string of diplomatic gaffes.”