John Spencer Yantiss - Media

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Diane Sawyer is a good replacement for Charles Gibson as anchor of ABC World News. Given the alternatives, Sawyer is a good replacement. The least liberal amidst a sea of the species, it could be worse. I only hope taht she has no more pizza-banana milkshake-Clinton dreams, or at least does not share them with the world.

Twitter is a fad. Yes and no: As all new gadgets, material or virtual, fascination will wane. Doubtless it will be around until some future vehicle displaces it, but the craze will dwindle.

I do not participate in online surveys. Surveys are almost as meaningless as statistical analyses of human behaviour, and polls.

I prefer Facebook to Twitter.

"On The Record with Greta Van Susteren" is the best Fox News evening program.

TechCrunch should not have published internal Twitter documents leaked to them by a hacker. Since the self-anointing of the media during the Vietnam War privacy has gone by the boards. Society used to do a fine and respectable job of censoring itself, but in a society which has collectively discarded any meaningful basis for values, self-respect and respect for others has vanished. The bottom line is that, if I want my privacy respected, I must respect the privacy of everyone else. If I do NOT respect the privacy of others, then--guess what!

The Internet should not be regulated by one governing body. On this, I defer to The Washington Times editorial: @TheWashingtonTimes/4728

Non-profit funding is not a viable way to sustain news organizations. As one newspaper has gone on record, "taking handouts is not" healthy for watchdog entities.

The Wall Street Journal should not move to a free online model. Advertising never fully covered the cost of print newspapers; considering the enormous efforts that go into mainting a state-of-the-art Web presence, it will certainly never cover the cost of online models.

The American news media did not appropriately handle coverage leading up to the war in Iraq.

The Fairness Doctrine should not be reinstated. Another example of liberal double-speak/newspeak.

The New York Post's chimpanzee cartoon is not racist. Then Abraham Lincoln was an African-American, since he was potrayed numerous times as either a monkey. Likewise, Irish-Americans must be "black," since they were portrayed as monkeys, chimps, and gorillas in scores of cartoons. Of course, part of the problem is the pervasive use of the word "race" to distinguish different ethnicities, skin colours, and various specific skeletal features. The word was first used in that respect in the 16th century, and has no valid etymological basis for such use. Indeed, there is only ONE human race.

Bloggers should not form a labor union. Labour unions are no longer needed; indeed, they are counterproductive.

Websites should not allow anonymous comments. If one does not feel secure enough, in who he is, to disclose his identiy, he should not be allowed to pontificate. On the other hand, that should be left up to the Website. If I see a lot of anonymous comments on a site, I will soon stop going to that site.

Bloggers should not be allowed to blog anonymously. Anyone who wishes to remain anonymous should not be on the Internet/Web. Further, if I am going to hold forth on an issue, and I wish to validate that position--wish for my opinion to be taken seriously--it is incumbent upon me to identify myself.

The Pulitzer Prizes are not still relevant. This once revered award for highest excellence has become nothing but a tool of international politics.

Craigslist should remove its 'Erotic Services' listings. For those who are oblivious to the astronomical spike in all things sexual, particularly when it comes to adolescents, and sex-related crimes, etc., I suppose it will be viewed as "free speech." However, there is NOTHING that does not have some restrictions. In an "absolute" interpretation of free speech, it would be perfectly alright for some wacko to accost one on the street, get two inches away from one's face, scream obscenities, and shout out, for others a block away to hear, accusations about the accosted one's private life, with none of it being true. Do we really want that sort of "liberty" available to be taken by anyone, anywhere, at any time? I doubt it. It is against the law for an individual to make verbal threats to the POTUS; that is a restriction of free speech. It is against the law for an individual to make threats of carrying out an act of terrorism; that is a restriction on free speech. My point is this: The ACLU, and other exremely liberal organisations and individuals holler bloody murder when a "freedom of speech" which they choose to champion is restricted or threatened to be. The reality is that we ALL have limits of speech and action, beyond which we would not agree to go. The further we go with open-ended eroticism, sexual license for those of any age (which we are doing with the "morning after" pill), doing away with restrictions on euthanasia, and on, and on, the more problems we, collectively, are going to have.

Social networking web sites are a fad. Of course! After the novelty has worn off, many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of users, members will just stop using such sites. Many will continue to use them intermittently and irregularly, but after the first ten thousand "Invitations" to be a "Contact" or "Friend," the excitement of being so incredibly popular will subside into the realisation that all that interest is, at best, long-distance flirting, and, at worst, mockery.

Newspaper organizations are necessary to maintain journalistic standards.

The Internet has had a positive effect on journalism. Though a majority of the the absurdly named "blogs" are, at best, extremely slanted opinions, as opposed to factual reporting, it appears--APPEARS, mind you--that the very reality of this opinion-poll type "journalism" has fostered a more professional and responsible reporting by some of the mainstream media. Only time will tell if this trend stands up to the ever-increasing deluge of events critiques.

The New York Times' coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is pro-Palestinian.

YouTube merits a higher valuation than Hulu.

Google should not attempt to acquire Twitter. Google has lost touch with its users, just like Microsoft did, and needs serious competition to regain its vibrancy.

National evening news broadcasts should not expand to an hour-long format. Local news is already 1 1/2 hours on most channels, repeating stories over and over again. If national news programmers were to add more positive news, and not focus 90% of their coverage on negative, catastrophic, tragic "stories," it might be a good idea; however that is not going to happen, as the majority are drawn to gore, destruction, and crime, rather than edifying, constructive, and inspiring events.

It is not appropriate for the President of the United States to make appearances on late night talk shows.

Web sites should be held legally responsible for user-generated content. Actually, yes and no. I do not know why we human beings continue (of course we always will) to insist on either/or questions. Rare indeed, is the coin-toss question, despite humanity's penchant for it.

CNBC is not a credible financial news network.

Online news should not be free.

David Gregory is not a good choice to host Meet the Press.

The FCC should not be dismantled.

Newspapers should not be publicly financed.

The government should not provide financial assistance to the print journalism industry.

American news media coverage of the Gaza Crisis has been fair. Strangely, yes. It is surprising, and I expect will change fairly soon, bearing down on the "disproportionate" fallacy, causing me to have to change my opinion.

The FCC should not allow white spaces for wireless high-speed Internet access.

Paparazzi should be required to obtain permission from the people they photograph.

National Public Radio (NPR) is politically biased.

MSNBC is politically biased.

Fox News is "fair and balanced".

The news media should not cover celebrities' personal lives.