Don't throw out all old-media values

[Commentary] The toughest challenges facing the news business may have more to do with values than finances. There's reason for optimism about its economic future. The appetite for fact-based reporting and topical commentary is keener than ever, and the number of people with the skill and desire to feed it is greater than ever. Demand is high, supply is high, the economic fundamentals are solid. Even the business uncertainties causing so much heartache right now -- how this new news industry will pay its bills -- is solvable. It won't be tidy and it won't be tomorrow, but some layered blend will emerge of direct payment and subsidy via advertising, NPR-type fundraising, profit-making spinoffs, offline activities and sweat equity from pro-am journalists working on the cheap. News will survive. Whether it'll be good and whether it'll do good -- that's what the public should worry about. The damage isn't done by the new tools, but by the old villain of market calculation, the belief that haste pays, that racy and sensational disclosures drive traffic and now, if they're incorrect or one-sided, actually increase interactivity. Getting it first trumps getting it right. Funny, that's something the corrupt old press barons believed too.