{"id":236108,"date":"2016-12-04T21:02:47","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T04:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=236108"},"modified":"2016-12-04T21:02:47","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T04:02:47","slug":"in-new-media-age-every-reader-has-to-be-an-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/12\/in-new-media-age-every-reader-has-to-be-an-editor\/","title":{"rendered":"In new media age, every reader has to be an editor"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong>\u00a0By now you\u2019ve read \u2014 maybe in the mainstream media \u2014 that the mainstream media has some big blind spots when it comes to American voters.<\/p>\n

\"Ross

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Ross Ramsey<\/p><\/div>\n

Obviously true. Obviously in critical need of attention.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the only problem with the political information that\u2019s available to voters. If you throw out all the predictions of who might win an election, where the candidates are strong and where they are weak, you\u2019re left with stories about the candidates\u2019 words and deeds and records in public and private life, in business and in government.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s something voters didn\u2019t know about Donald Trump or about Hillary Clinton that was important to how they voted, there\u2019s a pretty good chance that it was covered by the news media and that they just missed it.<\/p>\n

That one\u2019s on the voters.<\/p>\n

News doesn\u2019t work like it used to. Like gas stations, it\u2019s gone from full service to pump your own, from a reliance on editors who decided what you got to read and see to a DIY situation where everything is available to you and it\u2019s up to you to sort through the good stuff and the bad stuff.<\/p>\n

The old way was to find newspapers, magazines and broadcasters you trusted, to let them figure out which events deserved attention and how much, and to put together a balanced look at the world on your behalf. That remains the mission of a lot of what is referred to as the mainstream media \u2014 a name that reflects the way most people still get a lot of their news.<\/p>\n