TAP: Vol 14, Iss. 3. From Put-Down to Catch-Up. Todd Gitlin. Todd Gitlin takes the major media to task, but is anyone under 40 paying heed to them anyway?

The major media are much less major than they used to be, but the coverage of dissent within their circles hasn't changed much since the 1960s. When elites coalesce, the media readily follow suit. Then it takes a strong surge of public opinion to shift the sense of what is speakable. (Even that may not suffice to bend the press: It didn't, for example, during the Republicans' impeachment campaign.) After a summer of hearty Republican dissent, a pro-war consensus formed last fall, and the media concluded that those who had the bad taste to crack the consensus deserved to be treated as minor-league cranks. For whatever reason, it would appear that something has turned now. The bloom is off the bush.