There seems to be a subtle push by a decent number of people in the government and the “Old Media” against the so called “New Media”.  There have been numerous cases popping up questioning the validity of Bloggers and Independent News sites in general.  I have written previously about how the internet is giving rise as a new sort of printing press, where anyone can voice their opinions and anyone can listen easily, cheaply, often freely.

As mentioned in that article, the more easily disseminated information flow and easier access to a collective thought process makes people less easily controlled.  I’m not talking about some conspiracy theory based “”Make the population all sheeple so we can tax them and enslave them”.  I mean even a basic style of say, “control via advertising”.  A company could push the old model of press releases and commercials to push say, a new hamburger, but if the bloggers of the world go out and spread the message that the burger tastes like ass and is over priced, that marketing tactic will fail.

There is also the side of the issue where Politicians are suddenly more accountable.  There isn’t any “pay off the local paper to keep the slip ups quiet”.  It’s all posted on Youtube within minutes.  Politicians do stupid or shady things, some independent journalist can easily get the message out.  Now I do agree somewhat there there is a lot of “out of context” or even worse “blatantly provoked” responses being pushed, but there is something to be said about people who push one image when they clearly end up being another.

Finally we have the old school print media.  Readership is declining for magazines and newspapers.  Television viewing is on the decline.  These industries blame the internet and the new media.  They struggle to keep up and stay relevant.  The realities is there are a myriad of other factors that are causing the decline in both of these industries.  There’s enough that I could do a whole article on each Television, Print, and Radio individually, but it can be summed up by "laziness”.  That is to say, these industries were the monopoly behemoths with a strangle hold over their respective industries.  Sure there is internal competition, but there is still a huge cost barrier in all of these areas keeping the average person and their views out.  The internet has changed this.  Anyone can make a “video series” easily and syndicate it to Youtube.  Independent artists and podcasters can make a decent living without the help of radio or the record industry,  “Print” can quickly be achieved with a laptop and a free blog account.  These independent sources don’t subscribe to the model that you have to make a zillion dollars to be successful.  They also don’t subscribe to the idea of the middle man fluff.  This makes them quick, easily adaptable, and able to survive easily on “breadcrumbs”.

So these old industries fight back the best way they know how to.  They lobby for laws.  They lobby for laws, which benefit the makers of laws just as much as it benefits themselves.  A Michigan senator wants to license Journalists, to help push the idea of trustworthiness.  .While there isn’t much support for the bill, it’s something that can set a seed of thought in others and gain support with the proper coercion..

[State Sen. Bruce Patterson] told FoxNews.com that some reporters covering state politics don’t know what they’re talking about and they’re working for publications he’s never heard of, so he wants to install a process that’ll help him and the general public figure out which reporters to trust.

While this seems innocent enough, the promoted litmus test contains the extremely ambiguous qualification of "Good moral character” and demonstrate they have industry “ethics standards acceptable to the board.”.  As the article points out, the bill could easily lead to abuse by politicians and other outlets in promoting a preferred viewpoint to the population.

So where do you turn when you can’t get support in a bill that would help to discredit dissenters?  Perhaps a better plan is to simply turn to the old tried and true method of the money-wall barrier.  The FTC is now proposing a tax on independent news websites.  The best analogy I’ve heard for this is “Taxing cars to save horses”.  This speaks loads to just how much the online “blogosphere” is changing the way people receive news and information.  There has already been a push by the associated press to prevent bloggers from linking to and quoting their stories, now there are rumor of a tax for doing this same action.  It’s unclear from this article how the tax would be figured, though one version suggests attaching it to portable “New Media” style devices such as iPhones and Laptops. 

The bureaucracy sees it as a problem that the Internet has introduced a wealth of information options to consumers, forcing media companies to adapt and experiment to meet changing market needs. FTC’s policy staff fears this new reality.

There’s the joke of the situation though,  “forcing media to adapt and experiment”.  God forbid we have any sort of change or innovation in the market?  We should just keep everything the way it is now, forever.