Reply #3: You know, I think that is NOT an error....

[Karmakaze]

I think they knew where it started and gained the most ground, but TPM is the closest to a traditional news source so they used that. Why? Because they don't want to encourage people to start trusting grass roots media.

In fact TPM really didnt do anything. His first post on the story was one talking about how DU and DKos were talking about it, but that he didnt think it was true, and each new post merely reported what other people had found, either here or at DKos. I think the only part of the story TPM contributed was the first "official" statements by Kaloogian.

The mainstream media is trying to protect itself by ignoring the role played by what I am calling the grass roots media. They do not want "We, the people" getting the idea that not only can they become part of the media, but that they can do it better in many cases because they are not beholden to traditional power structures.

We (and by this I mean ordinary people) can not be bought off or controlled, and so we can not be allowed to be trusted as a source of news, no matter what the story. I also believe the whole "You can't believe everything you read on the Internet" stuff was pushed by the mainstream media. The reality is, the mainstream media is no more trustworthy, and maybe even LESS trustworthy as a source of news than the Internet. At least on the Internet, lies can be and are countered with truths. In the media, certain lies are untouchable, and even though the entire media knows they are lies, they will never allow them to be challenged in their pages or on their shows.

I must say, that it seems to me that for the last few years to a decade, lies in the mainstream media that are exposed, are ALWAYS exposed on the Internet, not in some other mainstream news source. We, the people, are holding them to account, and they do not like it. Not one little bit.