Well-said by novelist, screenwriter, and essayist Andrew Klavan, on who’s really for diversity in the media and freedom of the press: “the Left favors fewer voices and less information, and conservatives favor more.” Article here.

Key passage:

And what about Breitbart? Did he, like many a daily journalist before him, momentarily put speed over full context in releasing an NAACP video? Perhaps. But Breitbart is the grassroots nemesis of vast media conglomerates that continually and purposefully ignore, suppress, and distort information unfriendly to their ideology: release and disclosure are his reasons for being. Breitbart routinely breaks important stories that the mainstream media won’t touch. “I don’t even know about it,” chuckled ABC News’s Charlie Gibson well after Breitbart revealed corruption at the left-wing activist organization Acorn. “I just didn’t know about it,” said Bob Schieffer of CBS after Breitbart and others had been hammering at possible wrongdoing at the Justice Department in a botched case against New Black Panther thugs. And I guess the networks just didn’t know when Breitbart decisively disproved allegations that Tea Partiers hurled racist insults at lawmakers—because they continued to spread the discredited smear.

Old-media pooh-bahs like former ABC anchor Ted Koppel lament the “good old days,” when three government-licensed networks served as gatekeepers to what the public could and couldn’t know. Breitbart, meanwhile, exhorts crowds of citizens to shoot videos and gather information, telling them, “You are the media now!” Breitbart only wants more information, while the left-wing media too often operate through obscurantism and suppression. They bury the word “Islam” when describing terrorists who murder in the name of Allah. They depict police as racist while hiding the racial crime statistics that explain police actions. They actively ignore and spike both political and sex scandals involving prominent liberals, liberal causes, or media bias. They attempt to label speech offensive or racist if it undermines their positions.

As A. J. Liebling is reported to have said, “Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.” Real freedom of the press is increasing today as technological advances make it possible for everybody to own a virtual printing press.

That is a great threat to those who have benefited from the oligopolies of the past, but a big benefit to the public.