In the absence of a Regulon, information could proliferate to the point that it overwhelms us. Picture a world in which all those codfish live. With so many Web sites, Web logs, mailing lists, networks, magazines, instant messages, conferences, shows, gasbags, lobbyists, experts, scholars, junk mail and politicians bombarding us that we really have no idea what might or might not be true. The public is beseiged to the point of stalemate, a possible explanation of the dead tie in the presidential election. In the absence of natural selection, information spreads.
Media seem to live apart even from accepted business rules.
So the sites aren't subject to the economic or social versions of laws that govern biological species like the codfish. It no longer seems to even matter if they have readers or how many. This isn't to say that all media is consumed or successful. There are now a billion Web sites out there. And dead links are everywhere in cyberspace.