sadly journalism and capitalism don't seem to play nicely. - Robert Seidman

But what if there's a demand with little supply? Every now and then products in a saturated marketplace need a differentiator to be successful. Couldn't that play here? - Kevin Fox

News Hour on PBS - Hutch Carpenter

Here here, Kev. I've tuned in more lately to MSNBC, but that's probably only out of my political convictions. Lord knows, Fox is far from news and CNN seems too busy trying to find out if Jolie had her babies yet. There's room for something in the middle. ABC had talked of starting a 24-hour news channel but has since balked. My thought for balance? Perhaps a 24-hour PBS news channel a la the PBS Kids channel they already operate. The McNeil/Lehrer News Hours. - Chris Reed

@Hutch: We were thinking alike... - Chris Reed

BBC America does a much better job than most American news broadcasts. - David Worrell

That's why God invented blogs. If you're wondering about the truthiness of an item, check the comments. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Chris: IMO, 24 hour news is part of the problem. - David Worrell

What about PBS' news program? (NewsHour?) Or NPR? Or BBC News? - Bill Bittner from fftogo

We get the media that we deserve. - Steve Weis

NPR lost my respect as an objective news service a few days ago. Don't ask. - Helen Sventitsky

Kevin, that's what the Internet is for....You don't need a "license" to report and be a journalist....If the demand is in fact there, the Internet (as of now) is the medium to make it happen. - Chris Rossini

I don't dispute that the internet is a place for that to be possible, just that even with this level playing field, most of the players are biased either politically or toward sensationalism. - Kevin Fox

Unfortunately pragmatism is boring and sensationalism is interesting. See Reddit. This is why The Daily Show manages to be one of the best sources of news -- they make it entertaining via comedy instead of sensationalism. - Paul Buchheit

And the more I think about it, it's funny: I don't want pragmatic news for my own sake. I want it so that everyone else understands what's really going on. Of course, having such a network out there wouldn't fix the problem, because people will always choose the network that portrays the world in the way they want it to be, and the people I would most want to 'learn up' would never watch it. - Kevin Fox

@Helen: I'm asking, because I am a regular NPR listener and now I'm worried. - grant fox

Paul and Kevin, really great points. Kevin, it's possible they might watch it if it was so entertaining they didn't realize they were "learning up". - Robert Seidman

What I want is more field reporting and less meta-analysis. The Internet and blogs are good at meta-analysis, combining and comparing and filtering and echoing existing information. But very few bloggers are interested in actually walking the beat because, well, it's time-consuming, tedious, and potentially even dangerous. Counterexamples: groklaw, Alpie's greatergreaterwashington, ...? - ⓞnor

re: packaging: The Daily Show and Onion News Network aren't enough? You want a Charlie Rose style channel? - Phil Wolff from Alert Thingy

Truth is easy (there are many truths to pick from, you just need to search hard enough) but relevance for the audience is tough, because there are other interests at play than educating the audience... like making the channel a good environment to sell commercials in, to name one. - Philipp Lenssen

thats the rub, 24 hour news based entirely on truth doesn't fill the seats. With ad dollars at stake I don't see a switchover anytime soon. - Steve Spalding

@grant, a few things: http://www.commondreams.org/headlin... , http://www.thenation.com/blogs... , and now http://brickgrrl.blogspot.com/2008... - Helen Sventitsky

Kevin, if anyone can make it happen it's you guys. - j1m

Isn't that what it's like in Europe already? - Andrew Bonventre

I do not share the pessimism expressed here. The truth cannot be a niche service; knowledge is very, very valuable. However, a service based on 'truth' may be incompatible with American television for structural reasons (high costs, mass audience, expectation of free content, tolerance of advertisting, inherent technological limitation on information density). - Neil Kandalgaonkar

Was that supposed to support your lack of pessimism somehow? - j1m

*inherent technological limitation on information density* wadda ya mean? - A.T.

What do you think of this news report Kevin? http://youtube.com/watch... - Philipp Lenssen

"Isn't that what it's like in Europe already?" TV channels aside, have you heard of Europe's most popular newspaper (according to Wikipedia)? German BILD. It even got its own German watch blog, and several books were written on the subject -- including one where an undercover journalist worked there to investigate into their methods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... His book is not published in its uncensored version anymore here, though. - Philipp Lenssen

@j1m: I'm saying it's inevitable that a service like this will arise, it just won't be on television, at least not TV as we know it. - Neil Kandalgaonkar

@silpol: Historically, TV has delivered low resolution images. TV producers compensate with flat lighting, simple composition, fewer than 20 words on screen, reliance on emotionally charged images (like emotive faces), and rapid cuts. Compare that to how you feel watching an IMAX documentary -- they just have to hold the shot continuously and you are fascinated. This is why the very nature of TV militates against a real presentation of reality. HD may be changing that soon though. - Neil Kandalgaonkar

Interesting. So you figure low-res means viewers pay less attention? - j1m