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…or so says George Will.  In an OpEd piece appearing in today’s Washington Post, columnist and pundit George Will dismisses the decision by Time Magazine to declare “you” as their Person of the Year.  Apparently Mr. Will has concluded that the impetus behind Time’s decision is based on the frivolous use of the internet as a medium for mindless pursuits of self-glorification; and we the users of said medium are a reflection of such.

What is it with the MSM and their incessant desire to discredit those of us who operate in this new medium of digital distribution?  Do they feel threatened?  Or is that they’ve spent so much time tethered to their old IBM Selectrics that they can’t bridge the gap between the smell of ink and the clean smudge free aroma of 1’s and 0’s?  Who knows?

What I do know is that while the web does serve as a bastion for less than productive pursuits, it also provides an unbelievable forum for those of us who give a damn to be heard instantly - which is something our compatriots in the MSM are working feverishly to duplicate and doing a pathetic job of.

Look at the wasted airtime on cable TV with all of the 24-hour news formats and the ongoing regurgitation of the same story over and over (or as they like to say “covering the story from every conceivable angle”).  Or what about the local fish wrap and it’s desire to preach and promote an agenda that’s completely counter-intuitive to the concept of news-gathering (so much so that they have to provide a weekly column for their ombudsman to defend the paper’s actions).  Last, but not least, we can’t forget our friends at the local CBS affiliate who think that “gotcha” is synonymous with the concept of protecting the public’s trust (when it is more often nothing more than using someone’s personal embarrassment as a means to grab ratings).

As an individual, I am proud to be a member of this collective You… and you should be too.