So. Does the internet lack for local news? Let’s see what an FCC study says after honing in on Dallas, Houston, Portland, Cincy, and Charlotte:

CLT Blog and The Meck Deck produce opinionated updates about life and politics in Charlotte. …Simply because some of these sites produce high?quality content, however, does not mean that they are substitutes for a traditional media outlet. Previous studies have long found that blogs produce little original news reporting (e.g. Blood 2003). With a couple of exceptions, that finding holds true for the blogs this study identifies. A majority of posts involve commentary on stories and features found in traditional media outlets.

Ideally, we would like to measure both the amount of news content that each local news site produces, and the audience that these sites receive. … Still, perhaps the biggest problem with content in these local blogs is that there isn’t much of it. Added together, the nine Cincinnati blogs in the Google reader data produce 5.9 posts a day; the six Charlotte blogs produce 5. … Has the Internet significantly expanded the number of local news voices? The answer that emerges from the comScore data is firm but qualified “no.” We can say the least about the very smallest online news sources those that receive less than a few thousand unique visitors monthly, and are thus unlikely to appear in our data. But above this threshold, we find almost no evidence that the Internet has expanded the number of local news outlets.

If that isn’t the sound of a government agency justifying itself I don’t know what might be.

First, Google reader is far from a perfect sample collection rig. Meck Deck alone usually averages two or three posts a day, meaning the other five blogs the FCC tracked (what were the other four?) would have to be in the .5 post per day range and I doubt that.

Second, the old “original reporting” jag, through a “traditional” lens no less. Posts on Meck Deck — and CLTBlog, DavidsonNews.Net, Cedar Posts, CrimeInCharlotte, Pundit House etc. as well — break news no two ways about it. This is above and beyond original reporting.

Sometimes Meck Deck posts are written in a more traditional “newsy” fashion — as is often the case with crime and punishment stuff — or sometimes I roll total smart ass with exclusive content. Unless you are very familiar with the specifics of the stories and the media market you will not be able to make sense of the “original smart ass.” But judging from the number of FCC licensees in CLT which regularly pilfer Meck Deck ideas and revelations someone knows the difference.

And you know what? That is fine. We’re all about the ideas here. We want to be the seed. But don’t damn the acorn for not being a tree.

Further, what did the FCC make — if anything — of all the original reporting and page views generated by Carolina Journal? Meck Deck functions as a gateway for Charlotte-centric content from under the much more “pure news” CJ banner. Case in point, two years ago posts on a hush-hush Jim Black sweetheart criminal fine deal morphed into multiple CJ stories which in turn caused a Raleigh judge to bitch and moan. Seed, tree, club, wailing.

From an FCC point of view, this either didn’t happen, or does not matter. Or both.

The ironic thing is that I’ve long preached — I mean like a decade — that blogs and such should be more local in focus; that that is where the traditional media has left the biggest holes. Happily, in the past two or three years, that local hole has started to be filled by all manner of Net outlets.

That a New Deal-era relic like the FCC does not recognize them as such should not surprise us and maybe should be taken as a badge of honor.