Am I alone in my concern for traditional media?

FastCompany has an article about Rupert Murdoch criticizing Google for aggregating news. It is easy to take pot shots at the traditional media and people like Murdoch who create traditional content. Their unwillingness to embrace Web 2.0 and their slowly decaying model of print journalism does make them look antiquated.

Let's not forget, however, that people like Murdoch still have a viable revenue model for news and he stills pays journalists who fact check and seek confirming sources. In the late 1990's the courts prevented aggregators from showing a newspaper website site and wrapping their own advertisements around it. This is different, but not much. Google is certainly going to put ads on content which Murdoch companies developed. How would you feel if this was your news company?

I am no protectionist. But I see a big problem with the demise of traditional news companies. Bloggers do not fact check, bloggers do not get two sources, and bloggers forward on dubious stories because they have no way of confirming them. If we are left to bloggers for news we will lose investigative journalism (what's left of it) and accurate reporting. Our "news" will become a webmash of rumor, innuendo, and gossip.

If companies like Murdoch's cannot get paid for developing quality content, then we will all suffer. Won't it be ironic when the wide, open, and free distribution provided by the 'Net destroys the quality of the content we seek to distribute?