My grandpa taught me that there are two ways to lose at pool: Your opponent can beat you or you can beat yourself. I used to shoot against him in his basement. The cue ball danced when he shot.
Death lurks behind the 8 ball. Photo by Courtney Farr
I've applied grandpa's lesson to much of my life. Sometimes you just get beat and there isn't much you can do about that. Learn and move on. But, when you beat yourself, it's time to take a serious look at how you're playing. TV news, and any number of other journalists, could stand to play a game of pool against my grandpa.
The internet, YouTube, instant access to videos like Hussein's execution, and blogs aren't killing TV news. The television folks are committing ritual suicide by banging their heads against the wall. They keep doing the same thing while their audience stays old, their ratings drop, people lose faith in their product and the media landscape steadily changes.
Listen to the chant: "That which was, always will be. That which is, always was. Oohhmm…"
TV news ratings started dropping before the Internet was in full swing. Before YouTube and blogs, people were turning away. The rise of internet news and entertainment just made the trend more obvious.
The internet media will crawl out of their infancy faster than we can imagine. When that happens, the old television media won't just be beating itself anymore; the new media will pound it senseless unless it adapts.
I particularly liked the use of the pool vid in the links. It shows how you can use the link function to tell the story at different levels.