I spend more time looking up details for things I'm really interested in.

I appreciate the idea of digesting news for others, but then I'd have to deal with things that don't interest me, and it will start to become Work.

Most blogs ARE "digesters," and most are highly specialized. Like the Space Board does.

"Instapundit" and "Drudge" are Digesters, but while it's a timesaver, you can't stop there and get enough accuracy. At some point, if you want the truth of a story, you have to dig up original sources and do your own "digesting."

How many news stories about a document have you seen where nobody bothers to link up the original? How much of Iraq's situation is coming from people who never leave Baghdad? How much of your information is being filtered through people with an axe to grind? There will never be a "third party" you can rely on absolutely for objective interpretation. Within the limits of information access, you have to do it on your own.

The internet has brought first-person access to all of us that used to only be available to journalists who could afford to fly to the scene.