I am heartened and grateful for Orson Scott Card's call to action for local news stations: http://ldsmag.com/ideas/081017light.html . Almost immediately the response began with Barbara West...the first honest Journalist to turn the light back on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxT0ELP7az0. Then CBS 3 in Philadelphia followed with this interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGNCj0f2GRA. And later came this editorial from Noel Sheppard http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/10/25/abc-com-writer-deeply-ashamed-be-called-journalist.
Of most interest in Orson Scott Card's article, is his implicit recognition that the national news organizations are dead. You will not get what once was called journalism from Charlie Gibson, Katey Couric, or Brian Williams. But Mr. Card appealed to local news channel's. Somewhere out there somebody maybe in a small local news station still believed in the old school of journalism. And perhaps maybe a reawakening of journalism is beginning. Maybe yet before this election is over the "classic" media will vet Obama as well as they have vetted Joe the Plumber.
When Barbara West had the temerity, the audacity to turn the light back on something else happened that was bigger than the story itself. Through the connection of Drudge, Youtube, and a local news station Barbara in a few minutes of solid interviewing became more relevant than any of the national news anchors. Those anchors have sunk and the new day of local journalist's has begun. Those who are willing to do the real work of truth seeking, and of reestablishing themselves as the "Fourth Branch" of government will now become the new nightly news through Drudge and Youtube.
So we say good night Charlie, Katey, Brian. Roll Call begins. Who will join Barbara West, Noel Sheppard, and CBS 3 in Philadelphia in turning on the lights?
