The agony of the push media guild

In one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy ends up with the power to read minds. This turns out to be a curse instead of a gift. The thoughts of those around her are raging cacophony of voices inside her head that drives her to madness and the brink of death.

That’s what the internet has done to the people who make their living in the old media. Once they lived in a quiet world where they talked and every one else listened. Their work was rarely criticized. Sometimes they heard whispered praise or demurrals from other guild members but it was all very civilized.

Now, unfortunately, the great unwashed have a voice and the push media do not like what they hear. They spend months, even years, writing a book and then the barbarians deface its Amazon page with unflattering reviews. The New York Times goes all out on a story that illustrates the evils of class, privilege, and racism and then some blogger in Brooklyn shows that the Grey Lady is a gullible fool. The New Republic tries to find a new Hemingway in Iraq and uncredentialed amateurs suggest that his dispatches are not true.

No wonder Brian Williams moans about the dire threat posed by guys like Vinny in the Bronx.

Buffy was cured with the blood of a demon. Unfortunately for the MSM, no one has found a cure for fisking and fact-checking.

That is the dark specter that troubles the sleep of the push media. Now they know what we really think of them. Now they know that we do not trust them.