Kathy brought it up briefly in class, specifically referring to tax codes (I think). Should news outlets become a new type of organization like a non-profit as many are already doing? Could the IRS create a new tax code organization that specifically relates to news and information gathering organizations, offering tax incentives? Perhaps this second option would answer the big question being asked by many, “Who is a journalist?” If news outlets had a specific tax code, its employees could be called “professional journalists.”

Anyway, if the whole market is changing for news, maybe the law should too.

“Blog,” by the way, is just a publishing format. We are a community news website that publishes in blog format. And we are EXTREMELY accountable. (30-plus years in “old media” before this, fwiw.)

We cover a LOT of community meetings that no one else covers. And in just the past month, other stories that we alone covered for our community included high-school football playoff games, the tragic death of a diver, and the trial (with gavel-to-gavel courtroom coverage) of a teenager accused in a high-profile killing … eventually, stunningly, exonerated.

It’s not at all that journalism is extinct. It’s just that you find it in many more places these days – so nobody has a monopoly on it any more, which I believe enhances accountability, relevancy, and responsiveness (you must be committed to those qualities and deliver on them day in, day out, night in, night out).

However, what do bison hunters have to do with helping maintain our republic?

It really is sobering. Much like a bad picture you think man is the camera (recorder) broken because what I see and hear is BS compared to what the image and recording is giving me. Then it hits you, everyone and everything else sounds and looks just like you recall them sounding and looking so the trick must be in your head not the machine. Time to be nicer because your not half of what you imagine yourself to be. Its like going from a morgan freeman to a ponytail gazelle riding oddball and the only distruth is in your interpretation/perception of yourself. I guess I will just have to drink more.