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Last week I noted that we are in a completely new age in terms of world affairs and diplomacy. This week I want to note the parallel changes happening in the world of media.  Let’s take a little stroll down through the twentieth century and see where we are today.  For the first fifty years, the power was in print media.  Remember the films like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” or “Citizen Kane?”  Those who controlled the newspapers literally controlled what people heard and knew about the world.  But the Dead Tree Media saw its influence eroded with the advent of the little box in the living room known as television. 

The second fifty years of the twentieth-century saw the rise of the alphabet network news; CBS, NBC, and ABC.  Now the American public got their news in a nice, convenient 30-minute package at the end of the working day.  It was much like reading the headlines of the newspaper and the first couple of paragraphs in the articles, and in more entertaining form.  Of course, the networks ran special news reports occasionally when something important broke, but the events of the 1960s were coming much too fast and furious to just be superficially covered in mini-segments.  In 1968, the idea came for a regular network news program that would be more in-depth and comprehensive.  It was produced by CBS and called “60 Minutes.”  It quickly became the most viewed television program in America and stayed there for many years.  In November of 1979, a crisis arose when a group of Iranian students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held the occupants hostage.  ABC came up with a novel approach of competing with the late night talk shows by featuring a nightly update on the activities and calling it “Nightline.”  The format was so popular that ABC stuck with it, even after the hostage crisis ended.  Other networks began copycatting, and by the advent of the 1980s, all the networks had a cornucopia of news shows at all hours in its programming.

Though the ratings showed that these programs were immensely popular, there was also a huge undercurrent of discontent with the content.  A handful of executives located in Manhattan determined what was news and what wasn’t, and many evangelical Christians and political conservatives felt their perspective was rarely aired.  The alphabet networks, dominated by individuals admittedly on the political left and expressing less than hospitable attitudes about Christianity, felt no compulsion to respond because, quite frankly, they had a monopoly.  And they were making money… lots of it.  

But then came the 1990s and a new store opened up on the television block, known as ‘cable,’ and viewers found that shopping there was quite different from what they were used to. Instead of a few selections on the dial, they now had dozens and dozens of offerings to chose from, and among these were programs with conservative views.  One guy who realized the potential of this huge untapped market was Rupert Murdoch and his Fox Network.  Fox began a news program that was noticeably conservative in bent, and its ratings soon began to soar. 

But the real revolution took place in the beginning of the New Millennium with the proliferation of web logs on the internet known as ‘blogs.’  Though individually none of these has anything like national name recognition, it is the volume of blogs that gives them their major impact.  Last fall when CBS displayed the documents used by Dan Rather and CBS for its story accusing the President of shirking his National Guard duty, it was the blogs that exposed them as false.  Tom Hayes of Associated Press tried to pass off a lie that a Republican crowd in Wisconsin booed during the announcement of Bill Clinton’s hospitalization and President Bush did “nothing to stop them. ”  The AP was later forced to retract the story because the blogosphere lit up against them. 

This year the blogs have continued to call the Mainstream Media (as they like to call it) to account.  When the top news executive for CNN, Eason Jordan, spoke at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland two weeks ago and claimed that the US military had deliberately targeted journalists, the blogs smelled blood.  The Davos people originally promised to release the transcript of the meeting, but for some reason decided not to.  The pressure on CNN was relentless and just days ago, Jordan resigned.  

This is a new page in history, folks.  When CBS-TV aired a program “The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception” on January 23, 1982, it was filled with countless deceptions itself; they first paid then coached the witnesses, General William C.  Westmoreland’s comments were edited to change their meanings completely, and counter witnesses provided by Westmoreland against the assertions were never even considered.  It took a $120 million libel suit and years of litigation before CBS retracted its story and apologized to General Westmoreland.  Today, the turnaround is weeks and sometimes days.  It is no longer possible for the Mainstream Media, whatever form it is, to make claims that will go unchallenged.  We are in a whole new day of information.     

In celebration of the blogs, I want to publish the winners of the Evangelical Underground 2005 Evangelical Blog Awards.  Get familiar with these things – they are the wave of the future:

Best Evangelical Teen Blog To Be Least,

Best Evangelical Group Blog Dead Yet Living,

Best Evangelical Youth Pastor Blog Stu’s Rants,

Best Evangelical Missionary Blog Under The Acacias,

Best Evangelical Blog-Humor Rantings of a Lord of the Rings Fanatic,

Best New Evangelical BlogAmy’s Humble Musings,

Best Evangelical Blog-Pastor Mark D. Roberts,

Best Evangelical Blog-Apologetics Weapons of Warfare,

Best Domestic Evangelical Blog (U.S.) From The Morning,

Best International Evangelical Blog Tim Challies,

Best Evangelical Blog-Ministry 21st Century Reformation,

Best Evangelical Blog-Politics La Shawn Barber,

Best Designed Evangelical Blog Tim Challies, and