Do the hustle

The Other McCain blasts the Mainstream Media for lacking hustle on the Carrie Prejean picture story. But can you teach an old dog new tricks?
How do most stories get into a newspaper? Somebody has a story they want to tell and they want the best megaphone. In this case, the person with pictures of Carrie thought a blog would be a better megaphone than say, the L.A. Times. As long as the pictures got publicity, why should they care who gets credit for being first.
Individual reporters can hustle with their sources, so they are first on the list to get information when it's ready to go. Local newspapers publish all the local news, so when something big happens, their reporters should have it before someone swooping in from the mainstream media.
Besides, there's a firehose worth of information out there, and the media can only put a trickle on their news space. They have to use filters. We don't have to use the same filter. We can search the internet and find stories that interest us, and promote them outselves if we'd like.
The mainstream media used to have the biggest, and often, only megaphone. Not anymore.