Whenever someone uses the term “mainstream media,” you can almost be certain it will be meant derisively. For folks on the right, “MSM” is convenient shorthand for talking about a nefarious elite bent on imposing radical leftism, both of the economic and cultural variety, on America. Indeed, despite the journalism profession’s protestations of objectivity, the truth remains that it is composed overwhelming of people on the left. Treatments of leftist “media bias” like we have seen from Bernard Goldberg or Brent Bozell may be polemical and somewhat overwrought, but they are also rooted in a sound factual basis. Unbalanced media coverage of Obama during the campaign and early stages of the presidency was not just a figment of the conservative imagination. Here are two studies bearing this out: one from the Center for Media and Public Affairs and the other from the Pew Research Center.

At the same time, “media bias” has been a handy excuse for Republican failures. During the darkest days of the Iraq insurgency, many conservatives consoled themselves with the belief that the reality on the ground was far brighter than it was being reported by the MSM. “Fact finding” trips to Iraq involving conservative media figures and politicians were transparent charades and denials of basic reality. It was only when the evidence became overwhelming that the course was unsustainable that a reconsideration of Iraq policy became acceptable in conservative circles. (The long-term wisdom of the resulting surge strategy is a matter for another day).

It is interesting to note that many leftists talk about the mainstream media with the same disdain characteristic of right-wingers. They charge the media with carrying water for corporate interests and with dereliction of duty when the Bush administration was spinning the Iraq war. Is it possible for both right and left wing to be correct about the MSM? Some on the anti-war right (and left) would argue that indeed that is possible. In their minds, the media is a handmaiden of the bipartisan “Warfare State.”

What then should we take away from our consideration of the mainstream media? One salient fact to remember is that the journalism landscape is becoming more and more fractured every day. The rise of cable news, talk radio, and the Internet has undermined the hegemony of the Big Three networks and the major daily newspapers. We have all heard about the downward spiral of the newspaper industry, with venerable institutions filing bankruptcy or undergoing sizable layoffs. Soon enough, talking about the mainstream media as a recognizable entity will be anachronistic.

While conservatives might cheer this trend as liberal bias getting its just deserts, what will emerge to replace the reporting of the major newspaper bureaus is unsettling at best. The idea that bloggers working from home or taking the occasional trip will replace professionals on an assigned beat is laughable. God bless Joe the Plumber but casting him as a reporter on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict enters the realm of absurdity. The truth is that, even with the prejudices of most journalists, the conscientious citizen can, particularly with the help of the Internet and a healthy dose of variety, stay relatively well-informed. But the dark days that lie ahead for the whole profession may end not just with the welcome demise of MSM bias but with the rise of obscurantism emanating from our nation’s elite, whether they have a “D” or a “R” before their names.