Do we even need professional reporters any more? Given: - People will do their own reporting on disasters, political upheavals, etc. In fact it can be nigh im

Do we even need professional reporters any more? Given: - People will do their own reporting on disasters, political upheavals, etc. In fact it can be nigh impossible to stop them, witness Iran. - People comment and discuss for free. Hell, 99% of the traffic on the internet that isn't spam, piracy or porn is chitchat over opinions. Some people are even qualified to have an informed opinion. These can be aggregated. - Investigative journalism costs, but it also sells (as books and magazines if not as newspapers) - 99% of what ordinary reporters do every day is produce filler crap because you can't just print a blank paper with the headline "nothing happened". This is pumped out as news but it isn't news. It could vanish and it wouldn't be missed.