Page 2 The Lion's Eye Pye on Campus Bs Inst dtd April 5, 2005 Blogging: The day that journalism died "I drove my Chevy to the levy But the levy was dry." — Don MacLean Wednesday, March 9, 2005, Dan Rather resigned his position as anchor for the CBS Evening News, after an unprecedented 24-year run. That night the veteran journalist held a composed and stoic face — actually it was more grave and full of dread. He knew that we, the American college students, would no longer face tyrants, natural disasters, and wars through the medium in which he reported them. He knew that his fall and the scandal over a seeming- ly small discrepancy called the truth, would push us closer to the threshold of a much bigger threat: alternative media. That was the day journalism died. For it was ultimately bloggers who did Rather in. His carelessness, political bias, or in a more colloquial term, his overall screw-up, shocked the public into seeing how much the mainstream media has become insensitive in its cutthroat busi- nesslike push for ratings, so that the mainstream media itself has failed to realize whose throats are actually being cut. CNN.com reported that former NBC president Rueven Frank said, "It's hard to feel sorry for a guy who gets a seven-figure salary." And after his mis- take was made public by the bloggers, Rather was "encouraged" by the CBS network executives to step down. CBS was, after all, behind NBC and ABC in the ratings.In addition to the obsession with rat- ings (translation: money), the other important aspect of mainstream media is that they hold, or perhaps held, the seemingly imperialistic role of news czar. But with their public hold slipping, the main- stream media came up with a mas- terfully diabolical plan to infect their influence onto the unsuspect- ing college student. Their plan was to create a news resource that was available 24- hours a day and seven days a week, which would incite an irrational but ravenous appetite for news. They called it CNN. But it is generally accepted that the typical college student doesn't watch CNN. In fact, it seems that today's youth want tidbits of information, which would create a rapid- IEEE |v oyrating kaleidoscope view of the world around them. Jon Stewart himself was surprised, maybe even a little saddened, to find most college students get their news from the “Daily Show.” Perhaps then, the alternative media will be the future of main- stream media. The idea is feasible in context with the way the news itself as been reported through the ages: first through an oral tradition, then print, then broadcasting, then the almighty TV. And now, with the advent of the Internet, bloggers have brought us to yet another level of communica- tion... faster, easier and, this time, interactive. Here we have ordinary citizens simply smacking a post on the Net and calling it news. In an earlier time, this would be called gossip. However, one might consider this alternative media as a sort of protesting reformation, maybe even a revolution. Joseph Biscontini, professor of journalistic ethics at Delco, coined the terms "cowboy reporters" and "gunslinging journalism." This is because the alternative media is the wild, wild west of news resources. They gung-ho into high adven- ture but carry with them no code of ethics, like the lawlessness and chaos of the real American frontier. And yet, many of us have already forfeited our sacred trust for the truth to them. A father and his son walk the campus. Dave Horevay rides around in his sweet wheels, the security guard version of a soccer mom van. Two students take advantage of the spring weather by playing basket- ball, in the gym. Yes, that’s correct, inside. isn’t it? The Nittany lions does nothing because... well, it’s a statue, Students walk to their next class think- ing, ‘l could be playing Frisbee.’
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers