Bloggers have a habit of heralding the progress of new media, and the downfall of the dinosaurs. By no means have newspapers, network tv, and CNN lost their influence, but they're losing their audience. Recent numbers show that the tumble is continuing:

NEW YORK The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007. Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.

According to an analysis of ABC figures, for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago.

For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394, at least partly due to a price increase.

Not only have the folks at the New York Slime decided to up prices, but they thinned the paper, increased ad costs, and fired some employees. To put it simply, they're making financial moves to stave off collapse, that have only served to hurt the paper more. Their liberal bias and new slogan of "All the Government Secrets that are Fit to Print" can't be helping them in Conservative circles. The dinosaurs are ailing.

Should students be graded upon how many ads they sell? Maybe in an economics class. In a journalism class, I suggest that High Schools teach the students how to be good journalists. It's looking like it's all about the money. Hat-tip Glenn on this story:

COLLIER COUNTY: The NBC2 investigators have uncovered more controversy in the Collier County School District. Honors journalism students are not only getting graded on how they write, but half their grade is determined based on how many ads they sell for the yearbook.

Collier County School Board Member Linda Abbot says she was shocked to find out students at Naples High School are graded based in part on sales.

Glenn thinks the system is a good idea because it could actually help the students succeed in real life. I think this type of learning would be much more appropriate in an economics-type class, but not journalism. A journalism class should focus on news reporting, publishing, and other related processes.

Instapundit has a post up with some details about how people hate the press. It's funny, because I imagine CNN-hating Conservatives and FOX-hating liberals both saying broadcast media is biased:

More than half of Americans say US news organizations are politically biased, inaccurate, and don't care about the people they report on, a poll published Thursday showed.

And poll respondents who use the Internet as their main source of news -- roughly one quarter of all Americans -- were even harsher with their criticism, the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center said.

More than two-thirds of the Internet users said they felt that news organizations don't care about the people they report on; 59 percent said their reporting was inaccurate; and 64 percent they were politically biased.

More than half -- 53 percent -- of Internet users also faulted the news organizations for "failing to stand up for America".

Media outlets like the New York Times, expected to stand up for America? Ya, right. Allahpundit has some graphs and analysis on the same thing. Let's just say, Republicans don't trust anyone.

The battle to define ourselves as journalists, when we choose to do original reporting, has been a difficult one. The Main Stream Media has long been saying blogs only preach to the choir, do no investigative work, and don't contribute as true journalists. The CIA and the NSA disagree. One small step for blogger, one giant leap for journalistic integrity:

Are bloggers part of the news media? The U.S. government -- led by two of its most secretive agencies -- is increasingly saying, "Yes, they are."

Despite the rap that bloggers simply "bloviate" and "don't try to find things out," as conservative newspaper columnist Robert Novak once sniffed, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) have altered policies to indicate they're taking blogs seriously, and a growing number of public offices are actively reaching out to the blogosphere.

The CIA recently updated its policies on Freedom of Information Act requests to allow bloggers to qualify for special treatment once reserved for old-school reporters. And last August, the NSA issued a directive to its employees to report leaks of classified information to the media -- "including blogs," the order said.

The Freedom of Information Act change should be noticeable one, though bloggers and columnists on the right have been fighting through the paperwork to get facts for some time now. Document drops and investigative journalism is no rare feat in the blogosphere, and it's only going to become easier as more people realize we're part of the journalism community.

An interesting story has popped up over at Newsbusters today, talking about how Chris Matthews believes that media has always been biased here in the United States. He's trying to justify a biased media, which comes to no surprise to anyone who watches his sham of a show on MSNDC. Here's the transcript from our friends at Newsbusters:

Ana Marie Cox, Time.com: "I also want to say that this idea about voice being very important to the current viewer and, and Eugene’s right that it’s true, that this idea that we should be aiming for objective truth in, in journalism is a relatively new thing for us."

Chris Matthews: "I agree."

Cox: "And I think what’s important is that people trust, they could trust an unbiased [sic], they could trust a biased source."

Matthews: "Okay, this country was built on biased reporting."

Cox: "Yeah."

Matthews: "Common Sense by Thomas Paine built this country and it was a point of view -- better independence than British rule. There’s a point of view!"

First off, the folks at Newsbusters aptly point out that Paine was a pamphlateer, and Common Sense was hardly a piece of journalism or reporting. Common Sense was a propoganda piece, and whether it was true or not was secondary. I suppose it all comes down to agreeing with Tim Graham's final conclusion:

But when we at MRC attack "biased reporting," we are not saying that reporting facts with a point of view is bad. We’re not saying that National Review can’t have a fantastic article because they’re not sworn to be objective. We’ve always focused on those media outlets describing or implying themselves as objective. We're saying mangling facts in a partisan fashion and pretending you don't have a point of view is the worst combination.

Agreed, and that applies any station that claims to be objective. We all know that FOX says they're fair and balanced but lean both ways on certain things. Also, with some of these news anchors, Matthews included, it's hard to be fair and forget personal objectives. Just admit you're not objective, and we're fine Chris. Still doesn't mean I'll watch MSDNC, though.