From Susan Moeller and Moisés Naím in today’s LA Times:

There is no doubt that new technologies are changing the way all of us get and understand information. The trend is toward actively “searching” for what one wants to watch, read or listen to rather than passively taking in whatever editors or producers select.

The fascination with the transformational effect of all this makes it easy to forget what is essential to the information process: traditional “old media” messengers such as Anna Politkovskaya. Or the two German journalists killed in Afghanistan the same day. Or their 75 colleagues who have died so far this year in 21 countries, and the 58 who died last year, according to the Paris-based World Assn. of Newspapers.