The debate continues ...

... Beale vs. McDonald. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I'm with Mark on this. Before the internet, very, very few people could make their views known to the general public. Now just about everyone can. True, many of those views are pedestrian, cranky, ill-informed, etc., etc. But a good many are well-informed, incisive, original, etc., etc. And these latter are now available to the public, as they could not have been in the past. Some are proving to be more interesting and pertinent than those provided by the former gatekeepers. The latter defend themselves by pointing out that they would never have permitted those pedestrian, cranky, ill-informed outbursts to intrude on the public. But what about the others? Would they have brought them to the public's attention if they had had the opportunity? I wouldn't bet on it.