Recently, we've seen two good examples of coverage of online "new media" culture by the Greenville News, a "traditional" news media outlet. The two cases in point, which both are about the suddenly red-hot race for Lt. Governor in SC, involve 1) the blog site, Barbeque and Politics, and 2) the MySpace webpage of Lt. Governor Andre Bauer. Interestingly enough, both involve the Greenville News, the big daily newspaper of the Greenville metro region.

THE GOOD: Barbeque and Politics, like my blog, Mike Reese's Sports and Politics, Jeff Quinton's Backcountry Conservative, and many others, mostly cover two or three subjects, and usually a rather eclectic combination thereof. Many of these people are not consummate insiders, and therefore have different perspectives that challenge the status quo.

Barbeque's Photo-shop fueled satire is no exception. They got a great plug from Dan Hoover with the Greenville News, which quoted their recent satire about the Andrebahn, a freeway dedicated to the Lite Guv himself, following some recent traffic stops for speeding. Clearly, a recognition that some valid insights can be found on the blog:

The state's political blogs are having a field day at Bauer's expense. One, Barbecue and Politics, reported on fictitious legislative action appropriating $12 million to build an "Andrebahn" where the minimum speed would be 90 mph and only Bauer would be allowed on it.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, always the unconventional officeholder, maintains a personal Web page on MySpace.com that his executive assistant said Wednesday is part of his "open door" policy.

The page includes a list of more than 160 friends and photos, some of them young women in bikinis, and a link to a racy MySpace group called "Matt's Mom is HOTT," where users talk about parties, concerts and sexual scenarios. Other groups are political or sports-related.

Topping the page is a photo of Bauer, in the purple legislative robe he uses on special occasions, applauding next to President Bush and former Speaker of the House David Wilkins.

The rest of the page shows decidedly less gravitas, with comments from approved friends like, "Are you a parking ticket? 'cause you got fine-fine-fine written all over ya." Another user offers to find "a lot of cute, high-spirited girls" to help him campaign.

The story seems to try to tie the comments posted and people who have linked to Bauer's My Space to the Lt. Governor himself, without acknowledging that, as websites have often cautioned web surfers for years, the author/editor of one website is in no way responsible for the content of others.

It turned out later on that Campbell's campaign manager has his own MySpace site. Then again, so do I. So what's the crime about using MySpace as a valid communication channel to help do better job of reaching out to others, as well as sharing news and helping make connections between people?

Obviously, traditional print and airwave media still has much to learn about newer forms of media. While some do and even use new media to help better connect with their readers and disseminate their news/messages, others don't. So long as they don't, they will only lose for their lack of understanding, and in today's hyper-competitive media environment, that's always good news for the competition.