Posted by emersberger
on November 2, 2009, 8:37 pm
I was surprisied by some remarks Chonsky made during this talk that luke posted
Chomsky talk from the commonwealth club, california 6/10/09
Posted by luke on November 1, 2009, 7:28 am
http://fora.tv/2009/10/06/Noam_Chomsky_Philosophies_of_Language_and_Politics#fullprogram
To paraphrase, Chomsky believes that as newspapers die the number of people able to research news will decline. He doesn't seem optimistic that people blogging/reporting on the internet will fill the gap.
He didn't elaborate very much, but it seems his concern is that research takes time and resources; that coprproate reporters, however imperfect they do the job, at least have the time to do it.
Personally I'm far more optimistic.
For example, in Honduras, it was small indepndent researchers, whose work is available on line - Al Giordano of Narco News, Graham Russell of Righst Action, who provided accurate and detailed coverage. The corproate press, in contrat, could not/would not get the most basic facts straight.
That said, Chomsky's comments do underscore the need to find ways to pay for the work of Narco News and others who do on the ground reporting and researching on a full time basis. I think we do have a significant free rider problem on the internet.
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