Twenty-six percent of businesses using Twitter say they'd pay for the right services, and that might just be good enough.

WebBizIdeas.com polled 850 Twitter business users about what services would lead them to pry open their wallets. Three quarters of them said they either weren't crazy or were unsure about paying for additional features like analytics (31% and 43%, respectively), which sounds like a menacing amount. Yet, the size of this social media environment may make the 26% sufficient.

Nobody's naming names right now, but Social Times reports from SXSW that "a number" of companies are paying Twitter hefty fees for unrestricted access to the "firehose." While some Twitter data is accessible free through the company's developer program, the full data set is only available to those willing to write a check – and, it turns out, a substantial one.

Back in October, Twitter inked high-profile data-licensing deals with Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT), which brought in $25 million and put the social media service on the revenue map. Since then, it has brought more clients into the fold through its data-licensing program, including Kosmix and Scoopler, by opening up what it calls the "firehose"; i.e., unfettered access to the Twitter data stream.

I found this article over at CNET to be rather intriguing as it involved Dan Rather and his outlook on the present and future state of journalism. Mr. Rather is still a respected journalist (whether you agree with him or not), and his very public fallout with CBS over 2004's "Bush military duty" fiasco cost him one of the biggest positions in mainstream news.

In his speech at the SXSW conference in Texas this week, Rather made many points crystal clear about journalistic integrity and how it has gone downhill. I personally think he was alluding to the situation at CBS, but we'll move past that sentiment here. Rather said that corporate interests and political agendas were driving the engine of mainstream reporting and journalism these days, not the "actual search for the truth." I agree with this. Whether the organization that is the news-centric power is leaning left or right, the truth is what it is and it's being compromised these days in much of the media based on agendas.

To a point, this is why citizen journalism has taken so strong a hold in the media marketplace. The public (not the majority, yet) has grown tired of news reporting and media agendas that are produced with directions "from above." As Rather said, what happened to asking the hard questions and reporting the truth verified with facts?

That is a lost art form in many circles, but the concerned citizens who are actually fond of the truth and verifiable facts are using the Internet to really get the correct word out. Sure, smears and attacks (en masse) on the internet are just as numerous these days, but informed citizens will cut through the mess and make decisions based on all available information (I hope) -- not just one-sided reporting from one corner.