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With all the gloomy news, and up-to-the second "tweets" on the demise of old (or mainstream) media, it is with great relief and joy that I read Globe & Mail television critic John Doyle's column: We Still Watch TV.

It begins with two of the best sentences of clarification I've heard in a long time:

"Let's get something straight: The television industry is not in crisis.

The economy is in crisis. Simultaneously, the news industry is in a state of flux."

As a freelance journalist looking for television work and writing assignments, the daily hyperbolic reminders (based on a misunderstanding of the facts) that mainstream media is dying are a little too much to handle. It's all I can do some days to not ask myself, why did I choose this or why bother trying? Add to that all the twittering about how new media and social media are taking over and you've got a recipe for some very high levels of anxiety for a good deal of people still working in "old media."

Now I'm not saying things won't change, aren't changing or shouldn't change. I think they should, in fact they'll have to. They'll have to change to accommodate a new demographic that doesn't consume mainstream media, or at least in the traditional way. But I also don't think it's changing as fast as the twittering public seems to think. It can only change at the rate that the people running the old business models can figure out how to update them.

And like Doyle says, people are still watching TV in large numbers. He also says:

"... there's one thing I can't figure out – that is why local TV stations are suddenly not viable. In the case of CanWest Global's E! channels, I can see some reason for the current circumstance. Those channels, once resolutely local, were turned into absurd, unworkable hybrids that offered a little bit of local content, a little bit of prime-time drama and comedy, and a lot of celebrity-centric garbage reality TV."

I watched this happen to my alma mater, Chum Television when it was bought out by BellGlobemedia who slowly but surely cut out most time-honoured in-house productions, and veteran management and  staff. But even prior to that, when Chum bought Craig in an attempt to broaden its national reach. At that time, local entertainment news was replaced by a national entertainment segment, broadcast out of Toronto. Back then I was working at Citytv Vancouver and felt saddened that a city like that, that has a thriving local arts community, lost one of its only venues for reflecting that community to itself. Too bad. After that the 6 and 11 newscast were cut. Even worse.

So much has been lost in Canadian television by media concentration - it doesn't look too bad in Toronto, maybe here we barely notice it. But in the smaller cities, it's truly devastating, and not only because talented journalists lose their jobs. All that stuff predates this recession, and I believe it's something the CRTC should have had its eye on. Now it seems just fine to sweep it all under the recession rug causing and spreading misinformation and therefore more panic (and panicked decisions) than necessary.

I really think everyone should just calm down.

Please?