Has journalism become too much about journalists?

Does the world still need Ted Baxter?

If a professional journalist falls in the forest, and there's no one around to hear it, is it still news?

In his latest post, Buzzmachine's Jeff Jarvis challenges the myth that "without professional journalists, there's no news," a belief that he calls "journalistic narcissism:"

"The realization of that myth – the myth of necessity – hit me head-on when I read an unselfconsciously narcissistic feature in The New York Times this week about the room where the 4 p.m. news meeting is held.

"The Times feature certainly acted as if it were taking us inside the Pope’s chapel: “The table was formidable: oval and elegant, with curves of gleaming wood. The editors no less so: 11 men and 7 women with the power to decide what was important in the world.”

"Behold the hubris of that: They decide what is important. Because we can’t. That’s what it says. That’s what they believe."