I should be working on my thesis but I can't get this out of my head, so I'll just jot down some ideas about starting up our own DailyKos video news station. Our own "network news", if you will, composed of Netroots folks from all over the country. So in the vein of the old, "Hey let's put on a show!" type enthusiasm, here goes...
There's not much I like about WaPo (Broder comes first to mind) but I did like one story that was recently published about freelance reporting in China.
China's Muckrakers for Hire Deliver Exposés With Impact
The farmers, it turned out, had more than a small role in making the news. One of their own had hired Xu as a reporter, for a negotiated fee of $265.
What happened here in Qinglong was typical of a new kind of journalism that is emerging in response to the Chinese Communist Party's suffocating censorship of newspapers, radio and television. With no more investment than a computer and a taste for taking risks, several dozen Web-based investigative journalists have set up sites and started advertising their willingness -- for a price -- to look into scandals that traditional reporters cannot touch.
Brief: In order to root out corruption in their government, the farmers went to an online community and pooled money together to pay for a reporter to investigate a case of corruption that the tradtional media (China's MsM) would not report.
It got me to thinking, what if we Kossacks got together and voted on which stories we want to see reported. We can vote not only by a raise of hands, but by putting some hard earned cash in a kitty. Then, and hear me out, any other Kossacks who want or can take the time can take it upon themselves to issue a report on said story. Personally, I would vote for a video report to be posted on YouTube and viewed through DailyKos.
THEN (breathe) people are able to vote on the video report. Each vote in approval for the reporter's story then directs a small percentage of the money in the kitty to go to that reporter.
This just seems to me a cool way of generating our very own news site. One that in a very small way, competes with the Gannetts, Bloombergs, and Murdochs of the world. We, as Kossacks, create our very own news station. Viewer funded, Kossackly-supported news. I guess we could rely upon volunteer reports, but I think we could add a bit of financial incentive to make the service more self-sustaining and maybe even grow into a new(ish) model for funding news that we all know the MsM fails to deliver.
If anyone's interested or has other ideas, please write. I'd love to hear your feedback. Maybe this already exists in some form in which I'd like to tune in. Or maybe this doesn't exist in which case I'm interested in making it happen.
"Good night & good luck."
-Squashua