Old Media

It is not really something new that television programs with low ratings have a disproportionate influence on public discourse. James Fallows wrote about that years ago in Breaking the News. The Sunday morning shows, with minuscule viewership and defense contractor sponsors have long set the weekly news agenda. Now, of course, cable shows like Countdown, O'Reilly, and the Daily Show have an influence way beyond their audience numbers.

However, the (growing!) cheap ubiquity of tools for making and broadcasting video may change things faster than we expect.

Oh, and Wikileaks.