Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (center) is joined by America's Barack Obama (right) , Britain's David Cameron (left), Russia's Vladimir Putin (far right) and China's Xi Jinping (far left). Floating above their heads aren't ordinary balloons - they're journalists, representative of the modern day media dangling limply in motions manipulated by the political wind. This caricature is a metaphor for the current climate of modern democracy, or rather, the illusion of democracy and freedom of information, as big media bends to the ultimate wishes of big politics.
That said, Tim Knight's "Watching the Watchdog" blog titled "Why Citizen Bloggers Aren't Journalists," in which he blasts bloggers as being "..not by nature into accuracy, balance and fairness, the hallmarks of good journalists.,” but boasts that “journalists are different from other people. We're trained to report on all sides without fear or favour. We're trained to serve the people, not the powers that be – which includes governments and our unions and our political beliefs and the nice people who sign our cheques,” is shocking. Bloggers - journalists who aren't paid and who aren't censored - are sometimes all that stand between what politics want us to read/hear and what we need to read/hear. Always challenging the methods of traditional media, bloggers, or "citizen journalists," present facts that would have never seen the light of day if it weren't for the internet and the bravery of these unpaid, uncensored writers. Case in point - Mayorgate, a shocking blog of facts uncensored and inarguably backed up with proof some would rather have remained hidden. Mayorgate was born out of a will to speak out against the observed and proven media censorship in St Catharines, Ontario, Canada, but it has grown to speak out on national and international issues, with democracy and freedom of speech/information being centrefold. Read Mayorgate's response to 'journalism guru' Tim Knight: http://mayorgate.blogspot.ca/2013/11/journalistsare-different-from-other.html