Eric the Red

The President of NBC had some not-so-kind thoughts over blogging.

But Zucker said he is wary of some of these advances, especially the blog craze and its effect on TV.

“We pay too much attention to blogs,” he said. “It is absurd how much attention they receive.”

Zucker is annoyed, but in reality I think he’s scared. Scared, because blogs have the ability to bring balance to the media world. Blogs brought about the fall of Dan Rather, from CBS in 2004. CNN systematically buried evidence of atrocities inflicted on the Iraqi people by Saddam Hussein over the greater part of a decade.

If the mainstream broadcast “media” is willing to ignore the heinous acts of a dictator, why isn’t it the responsibility of the public to bring that information into the public view. This is what makes the internet a powerful tool: no matter what the bias in the mainstream “media”, individuals have the choice to look elsewhere for their information and may balance whatever they read against any other typing head. Due to the bias shown by CNN and Dan Rather in memogate, it comes as no surprise the people want to read differing points of view. Perhaps free competition is why the networks are so upset, but its exactly what they need.