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It's nice to see the tectonic plates shifting right before our eyes.
It's not the more obvious stuff, like the Democrats pushing hard at the Bush Administration (as I had hoped, Henry Waxman is bringing the hammer) or even the Supreme Court insisting that the EPA do its job, and that the job includes global warming.

It's Apple Computer driving another nail in the coffin of Big Media.
The release of the AppleTV box does not bring the jubilee by itself, or quite yet; nor does it spell the end of Big Entertainment Companies. And the agreement between apple and EMI to sell non-copy-protected music is not going to mean better rock and roll or the death by strangulation of Justin Timberlake. Indeed, Both developments probably lengthened the life spans of the BEC's (if not Timberlake's). But the important thing--and the thing that makes it politically important is that it changes the shape by which we get our intangibles.
I said to myself (and to others) when the video iPod came out, that this was the first step in the death of network television. Sure, the screen was teeny-tiny, but it, combined with TV for sale at the iTunes store, was the first New Working Model already on the showroom floor. And it was remarkable if not surprising, that otherwise sensible people would pay $1.99 for something that was being given away elsewhere for free. And while cable companies were fumbling around with pay-per-view and video on demand, Apple began to deliver what was a distant goal to them.
And with the Apple TV, there's another link in the chain: a box that will, seamlessly and easily put those bought shows on your big home TV set. And of course, everybody foresaw long ago the vision of the vast library for movies--but what is happening now is that model for everything.
It's not just a prototype either: conversing with a friend over the phone, with him singing (with restraint and modulation) about the virtues of a new series (The Dresden Files), it occurred, as natural as could be, to both of us that I could zip over to iTunes and download an episode--especially since my friend couldn't even remember what channel it was on.
Now if that's not a nightmare scenario for a media executive I don't know what is. No network branding, no follow-through--not even any compulsion on the part to run home in time for the next episode. Advertisers? What are those?
And when, in a very few years, both computers and TVs start coming with built-in AppleTVs, and people get more and more used to it, more and more people will be disconnecting their cables and buying what they want to watch from iTunes--and the rival stores on line. And people will start getting nostalgic for the eye,the peacock, and whatever it was ABC had. Remember them?
This is absolutely not going to end the reign of corporate entertainment: especially with the vast and complex process of making video/film, you're not going to find honesty and cleverness trumping big stars and rollercoaster special effects. If anything, they'll be more important than ever. We're not going to be thrust into the salons of Mme.de Staël--not even as far as the coffeeshop at Border's. The multiplex at the mall is probably as far as we get.
But the important part is that we are moving towards this in everything--and that means news as well.
(Ah, you see where I'm going?)
When we have a populace for which video means browsing for a choice instead of settling for what's given, we move away from a world in which the slant on the news or the color of the opinion is lent weight by the size of the company that puts it out.
This is not the future: it's already happened--online. Joke Line at TIME has, in the blogosphere, no more weight than Duncan Black, running a blog off a free service. All sorts of voices are hears and paid attention to--even this blog right here.
But a big shift has started, as that world, that New Model, is finding its way onto our old electronic hearth.

At the run-up to the Iraq War, it was the TV Networks on the side of the war, and a bunch of bloggers, alternative journalists (and oh, yeah, most of the world outside the United States) on the other. The battle, like the military advance against Baghdad, was no real contest.

But in a world where everybody chooses their news feed--where it's as easy to get digby as Katie Couric? As easy to have Dave Neiwert as Lou Dobbs? Where we log on and choose whether we buy Joe Conason or Keith Olbermann or Michelle Malkin or Christiane Amanpour for our commentary? To be sure, there'll still be a fight , but the odds will be very different.

Posted: Thursday - April 05, 2007 at 04:54 PM        

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