Here I Blog, I Can Do No Other

Bloggers, the Mainstream Media, and the paralells to the Reformation

Buoyed by the ascendancy of a new information technology, a revolution against the mainstream media (MSM) is underway. What began as a modest effort to reform the excesses of the MSM evolves into a total rejection of the MSM’s right to mediate and interpret the truth. Bewildered by its huge loss of prestige, and embarrassed by its increasingly obvious shortcomings, the MSM alternately dismisses the revolution and lashes out against it. Slowly but inevitably, a new understanding emerges. Lay people realize that they have both the ability and the duty to find the truth on their own, free from the biases of a corrupt and self-serving institution. As the unrivalled authority of the MSM has collapsed, the MSM must curb its excesses and return to its primitive purity — or collapse under the weight of its arrogance.

We’re talking about 2004, the Internet, the blogosphere, and the big news reporting agencies, right?

Wrong. We’re talking about the sixteenth century, the printing press, the first Protestants, and the Roman Catholic Church.

The notable appeal to latent anti-Catholicism aside, this isn’t a bad comparison:

The Protestant Reformation opened the door to an efflorescence of individualist thought and achievement, even as the Counter-Reformation made the Catholic Church a holier, more honest, and more Christian institution. Internet commentators may do the same to the MSM. But for now, expect more recriminations, more crusades against heresy, and more combat over control of the truth. Be not afraid! The e-blood of the cyber-martyrs is the seed of the future media church.