Another post mortem

It's been a good few weeks for freelance journalists, thanks to Dan Rather and CBS. I have read so many opinion pieces* and autopsies on Rathergate in the past few weeks that I could count myself a historical expert on the sequence of events.

(Disclaimer: I really have no expertise in this field, but I'm going to continue talking about it anyway) Being a freelance journalist has got to be pretty tough. Even if you're good enough with words and current events to do it for a living, I can't imagine that it's steady enough to employ a lot of people permanently, certainly not as many people as probably do try to do it for a living. And now, with the advent of blogs, it seems like more and more people who are smart and good with words are becoming known. In fact, as natural selection works its way through the weblog ecosystem, some of them are (only more frequently, in some cases) being asked to write pieces of their own for big media outlets. It seems like we're in for a supply glut, and that's going to mean hard times for those who are lower on the food chain. (Via InstaPundit)

* I would have linked the William Safire op-ed on this, but it's too old and now you'd have to pay the NY Times to read it, so you'll have to make do with the NY Post one.