I don’t usually defend Steve Rhodes, mainly because he’s usually transparently liberal. But watching Fox Chicago Sunday this morning I felt the pains of fraternity in my heart. Jack Conaty went after Rhodes on the development of the blogosphere and in so doing showed just how little he actually understands about how it works. Conaty’s criticisms? (1) You can’t make money in the blogosphere and (2) there is no systematic fact checking to ensure accuracy.

On the first point, Rhodes didn’t do himself any favors by not admitting that there will always be some need for the “old” media. That is, the “new” media is never going replace “old” media. But it is going to revolutionize (indeed has revolutionized) how ALL media is done. The proof of this lies in that the very segment following Conaty’s grilling, was on all the different ways Fox32 is engaging the new media with blogs and online video.

Old media can no longer ignore its audience, an audience represented by the new media. Another way of saying this is that media used to be a monologue, now it is a dialogue.
On the second point, Rhodes did a good job in pointing out the key advantage of the new media: that it is self-correcting. While it lacks the hierarchical structure of old media, its intrinsic openness allows errors to be immediately reflected. Though old media make fewer mistakes, without new media those mistakes would survive forever because we have to rely on hierarchical and self-interested media organizations to correct themselves. Empower the audience to respond, the new media creates a check on entrenchment of old media.

While old media assumes it’s audience is passive and stupid, new media assumes its audience is active and intelligent. The truth is somewhere in between. But Jack Conaty should beware that his dismissive treatment of new media is dismissive of his entire audience and this is precisely what old media can ill afford any longer.