[Simon]

Yes, I think the major news channels have lost their appeal for a lot of people. Fortunately, for those of us online (constantly?), there are plenty of other options.

But one thing I see happening is a division forming between those who use computers to get news from online news sites, blogs, etc, and those who don't use computers very much if at all.

It used to be that just about anyone could tune in to the "evening news" and know pretty much what everyone else knew about things. But too often these days I'm meeting people who are nearly clueless about things covered in the news.

These are people who don't watch network or cable news, but they also don't work in an environment where computers are part of their everyday life. As a result they either don't own a personal computer, or have one (often it's "for the kids") but really don't make much use of it.

We're winding up with a nation (world?) that's being divided into the regular computer users who are comfortable using their computers to get their news, and those who don't use computers or don't use them to read about what's happening in the world.

I know the kids are using computers regularly in many schools, but not all of them. And as long as there are jobs that don't require computer competence, there will be people without much access to anything but the news channels, and they're not interested in watching those.

Maybe the crossover of the Internet being available via the television in everyone's homes will help change the balance in that dynamic. I hope so. It's not much fun arguing with folks who have plenty of opinions without anything to base them on except "what they heard" and "what everyone knows."