Here's a good quote from Transmet:

"Journalism is for the madly passionate.  It's for the intense and the  half-fucking-mad and the people who give a shit."

I always wanted to hang this up on the wall at the Voice, but the graphics arts folks were already shooting funny looks towards our corner of the lab, so, fuck it.  regrettably, most of the kids on staff didn't seem to get the power that words had, the sheer impact a little bit of truth could make. 

And the sad thing is, it seems like the pro journalists have given up on that one as well, have toned down truth to keep from offending the Power, to keep their advertisers happy, to keep from getting cut out of invitations to the conventions and the press rooms.

Why the hell are people so worried about telling the truth?  We don't tell the truth unless it's couched in fiction or off on the sidelines, being screamed out by people without much of a voice.

It seems hip these days for Big Media to tip their hats to the bloggers, a patronizing, grudging acceptance that real people have a powerful venue and sharp minds, and are capable of spreading information, rumor, and opinion as thoroughly as any other print media, and almost as thoroughly as television.  Seriously, those of you reading this, do you trust CNN, FOX & MSNBC to talk straight to you, or do you get at least part of your news from WONKETTE, FARK, SLASHDOT & BOINGBOING?

Let's face it: the Net is pretty much nothing but information & porn.  And porn, as fun as it might be at first, gets boring pretty goddamned quick.  But information never gets dull, does it?  The more we find out, the more we want to know.  We never stop.  We're meatbag question-asking machines.  Knowledge, if you'll pardon me, is power.  And we might just be on the cusp of a society that has as much, nearly, information as the people who run us.

Just so long as we care.  And ask questions.  And are willing to face up to the shit we don't want to hear.

Dig?