This is true, but assembling news is peanuts compared to assembling operating systems in terms of time necessary. And lots of people like to write operating sy

This is true, but assembling news is peanuts compared to assembling operating systems in terms of time necessary. And lots of people like to write operating systems for free. That's because interesting work has a non-monetary reward built in. Lots of bloggers write well researched and very interesting topics essentially for free. I agree the ignorance of crowds and the free spread of rumors is not substitute for quality information and analysis, but I don't necessarily agree a monolithic newspaper is the only way to get it. Newspapers were all about owning the distribution channel. Now that is gone, so the newspapers themselves will go.