Fox News is ten years this week. I really don't know what the significance of that is.
Roger Ailes, who had discovered the vast conservative hunger for someone to give their point of view on the news when he put Rush Limbaugh on radio. He then did the same, with the help of Rupert Murdoch, on television. Nothing has so enraged the left for a long time than the loss of its monopoly on news. And the past 6 years haven't been a particularly golden ages for media objectivity and fair reporting, as the MSM has practically thrown off all pretense of being nonpartisan.

But I think that the invention of blogging is a far bigger deal than Fox News Channel. Mostly Fox isn't too different from CNN, except that it makes more of an effort to tell both sides and challenge the leftward spin of many of its guests. I don't think Bill O'Reilly or Hannity & Colmes have greatly elevated the medium. I prefer Brit Hume's show to all others news coverage, but the whole concept of 24 hour news coverage is really kind of mindnumbing. When they can come up with correspondents who can report on their various beats without repeating them 12 times a day, it will be more valuable. Until then, I only need an hour's worth.

The blogosphere is a different story. It's like have millions of correspondents and commentators bouncing ideas and tidbits of facts off each other. Most of it is recycled, but who would be able to scan so many news sources and so many different kinds of spin, hilarity, sarcasm and weirdness daily? It really does make life richer.