Doc Searls commentary on newspapers and RSS

In his commentary on Josh Hallett's piece on newspapers & RSS, Doc Searls echoes the argument I've been making to my Online Newswriting class:

I think news-org aggregators will succeed if they're run by editorial people, not by advertising people. Readers come to papers for editorial, not advertising. And the editorial folks could add enormous, and unique, value to the news stream that flows in from the blogosphere.

Searls' comment also makes reference to the recursive flow of news between the MSM and the blogosphere. Once again, there is an optimistic and a pessimistic way to look at this:

Optimistic: By constantly filtering and evaluating each other, the MSM and the blogosphere will distill truth from the ocean of information they generate.

Pessimistic: By constantly filtering and evaluating each other, the MSM and the blogosphere will create an echo chamber, which will further establish mob journalism as the dominant force in the news media.