Business: Brad on Biz

Cronkite overlooks Internet benefits

By: BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer

The Internet degrades journalism with inaccuracy and sensationalism from "would-be writers." That's the word from Walter Cronkite, the veteran reporter and retired TV news anchor, in his last newspaper column for King Features Syndicate.

I had hoped for a more informed opinion from Cronkite, once considered the most trusted person on TV news. He should know enough to distinguish between the medium and the message. Half a century ago, Cronkite jumped from print to TV news, despite the sneers of print colleagues about the medium's shallowness.

Cronkite is right about the lack of accuracy among many Internet writers, reporters and bloggers. But by concentrating on the negative part, he misses the greater story.

While myths get spread around the Internet at the speed of light, so does factual debunking. The Internet gives people who'd otherwise never have the chance an outlet to reach the world. It provides a new dimension to the marketplace of ideas, much more versatile than the old one-to-many media model.

Perhaps Cronkite hasn't noticed, but the traditional media has also spread many whoppers. There's the false tale about Bush the Elder, cluelessness about supermarket scanners, or the one about Al Gore claiming he invented the Internet. Visit Spinsanity (www.spinsanity.org), for ruthlessly nonpartisan exposure of the current crop of political distortions.

The Internet excels in offering primary sources, so the public can make up its own mind. Instead of relying on a reporter or pundit to understand the report of Congress on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, people can read the whole document on the Internet at (www.9-11commission.gov/).

To find out what's really happening in Iraq, those much-maligned blogs come in handy. One of the best is the blog of Juan Cole (www.juancole.com), an expert on the Shias of Iraq and professor of history at the University of Michigan.

Cole, who lived in the Arab world for six years, speaks Arabic, Persian and Urdu, and has done considerable scholastic work on Iraqi history. These are credentials not normally possessed by most reporters or TV "news" performers.

No longer need the public rely on the TV and radio talk show screamers for what passes in those quarters as informed comment. As a searcher for truth, Cronkite should be pleased.

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at bfikes@nctimes.com or (760) 739-6641.

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