Opinion: "The Information Age" - Part 1 of 2........

Americans today have ready access to more sources of information than at any time in human history. Just consider all the options available to today’s information consumer. There are the large numbers of newspapers, newsmagazines, opinion journals, 24-hour TV news channels, talk radio and news oriented websites by the hundreds. On top of all that is the explosion of phenomenon known as the blogo-sphere. If that were not enough audio pod casting is now starting to take off.

What is the impact of this proliferation of information? I would argue it a mixed blessing, at best. On one hand, information has truly been democratized. Especially the Internet, that has allowed information to spread unfiltered to all corners of the globe. It has become increasingly difficult for governments or others to control the types or nature of information to which they allow their citizens access. Today anyone with access to the Internet can get another point of view. Yet much like the Biblical Tower of Babel this explosion of information has lead to an intellectual confusion on par with the confusion of language resulting from the Biblical story. In addition, I would argue that this ready access to information has contributed greatly to the political polarization of this country. Finally, as the saying goes, more is not necessarily better.

There was a time when state controlled news agencies were the only sources of information available to people living in totalitarian societies. What people knew about the world was what they were told by their government. This allowed corrupt dictatorships to control the lives of their citizens through propaganda. While this is still an all too common phenomenon in parts of the world the Information Revolution has made this much more difficult. As the last bastion of true freedom the Internet does not answer to governments, or shareholders, or editors. Those that access the Internet are able to avail themselves of truly unfiltered information.

The mainstream media used to have a virtual stranglehold on the news. In years past the news was what they said it was. The Walter Cronkite’s of the world were powerful. To point a fact, Cronkite’s reporting of the War in Vietnam is credited by many with turning America’s attitude against the war. Yet as Lord Acton observed "power corrupts". Over the years the mainstream media became increasingly arrogant. The culmination of this was the attempt by CBS News to use falsified documents in an attempt to discredit President Bush during the last election cycle. At one point in time they might have gotten away with it. However, they were not counting on the Internet to act as fact checker. As a result the story was debunked, many CBS employee lost their job and Dan Rather was forced to retire.