Death Spiral for MSM credibility?

I am somewhat surprised at the main stream media’s (MSM) reaction to bloggers regarding Eason Jordan’s resignation from CNN (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, start here). Steve Lovelady, with the Columbia Journalism Review, reflects their attitude with this quote "The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail” (as reported by the New York Times). Much has been written about this mischaracterization of bloggers (see Glenn Reynolds), so I won’t bother adding my two cents.

My observation, instead, is how many people readily bypass the MSM to dig into available information direct from bloggers. I understand the phenomenon, because I’ve long not trusted the MSM; I just didn’t realize how widespread this attitude is. It underscores an underlying credibility gap that automatically starts the MSM on defense. But the MSM chose to make matters worse. Their soft-pedaling of Eason Jordan’s comments and subsequent vilification of bloggers only served to widen the credibility gap as more folks read the blogs for themselves and compare them to the MSM’s reporting of the same. I’m betting most will conclude they don’t match. Thus continues the MSM credibility death spiral.