Ethics in a blog world

There is an interesting post on the Mediacenter blog, Morph, in which Taran Rampersad puts a new twist on the ethics framework in which we operate.

Rampersad's take, briefly, is that our current media ethics framework evolved because media until now was largely a one-way relationship, and so society had a need to control the media and ensure its accuracy. But now, Rampersad says, that is shifting with the ever-easier ability to interact, criticize and fact-check journalism. Now, Rampersad writes, the onus is on us, society, to play an active role in shaping those ethics: "If you believe something is unethical, unleash your keyboard and say so. If you think something has to be written, write it. The time for blaming the traditional media for slanting the news is at an end. It's society's responsibility to challenge this new molecular media -- and this requires ethics, responsiblilty and accountability on the part of the reader more so than ever before."

I'd be interested in the reactions of those here at J-School Year to that. Are we, the readers up to the task? Is Rampersad being too nirvana -- does such criticism count if it is on a backwater blog somewhere read by three people and not easily discovered? Does his suggestion eveolve to be a cop-out by the media that says, well, someone else will catch it if anything's wrong?

Weigh in, please.