Re. troubled news organizations, I just tabulated LBN news sources --

[DeepModem Mom]

I know some rejoice at trouble, or even demise, in any part of the MSM. First of all, employees at newspapers are workers like any others, not highly-paid, and, in my experience, overwhelmingly liberal. All of their jobs, like those in other industries, are in danger every day, and thousands of industry colleagues have lost jobs. I don't know anyone who works at wire services, but I assume similar there.

Second, some might think they get news only from blogs, and some, I'm sure, do. But if anyone here gets news from DU's LBN, here is where it's coming from right now on Page One of the LBN forum -- and 21 posts appearing on that first page now have been voted on to the Greatest Page. The sources are listed, followed by the number of posts from the source on the first page of LBN. The sources vary each day, of course, as does the representation from each source.

Many of the wire stories come through newspapers, but I've credited the original source, the wires. Our major newspapers may be represented by fewer stories than the wires, but they often break some of the most important original stories. In addition to the MSM sources listed, the blog Raw Story is represented, I believe, as a source of three stories, and the blog Politico, once -- and a few foreign sources are cited.

Bloomberg News, 7
AP, 19
Reuters, 8
CNN, 3
Birmingham News, 1
Detroit News, 1
Washington Post, 1
CNBC, 1
Birmingham Star, 1
Topeka Capital-Journal, 1
L.A. Times, 2
Wall Street Journal, 2
New York Times, 3
San Francisco Chronicle, 1
Chicago Sun-Times, 1
Kansas City Star, 1

A huge part of the problems newspapers are experiencing, of course, is related to reading their work online, for free. This problem will have to be addressed and overcome if these news organizations are to survive. But if they do not, news-gathering organizations of some kind will have to step up with comprehensive news reporting, foreign correspondents, etc., if we are to be informed as citizens about what's going on around us and in the larger world.

I've gotten as angry at MSM as most anyone here, and have posted here about grievous shortcomings of the MSM. They have failed us miserably in many areas. But the focus here is on basic news gathering and reporting, and not critique -- and is really just an FYI.