Biggest Little Story Of 2011

The dissemination of what was once known as the power of the press from the mainstream media to the blogosphere is certainly a good thing, as it gets more eyes and ears on what's really happening in the world. The downside, of course, is that the signal/noise ratio decreases, as any idiot with a keyboard can rant on about about chemtrails, the "faked" moon landing, or other nonsensical conspiracy theories. So the reader is left to sort out the good from the bad, rather than being spoon fed. It's worth the effort in my opinion.
 

Jeff Young

GT40s Supporter
It works if you have an educated populace that can sort the wheat from the chaff. That seems to be an issue, a very serious one, with the way information is now processed by the public. When Rush and Beck and Olberman and Maddow and the Huffington Post and other web based sources are treated as hard core news by the consuming public we have a big problem.

More and more and more I'm sent blog stories as fact, when the only fact in them is that the writer googled some data and regurgitated them, or repeated a story he'd heard elsewhere without any of the fact checking and other checks and balances that went into "hardcore" reporting of old.

So count me in the "I'm not sold on it yet" category of folks who view the blogosphere as a potentially great development that still mostly looks like a bunch of nuts on both sides swapping stories and rumor and innuendo.
 
Coming at it as a Conservative, it was the great equalizer. The dam burst when Drudge ran with the "blue dress" of Monica Lewinsky. The Washington Post decided not to run with it, Drudge picked up the ball and changed who ran the news cycle. The big newspapers never accepted that there is a vast audience out there that they chose not to service, and do so at their own demise.

Of course, Clinton was smart enough to use Lewinsky to get him out of being found guilty in his impeachment.
 

Pete McCluskey.

Lifetime Supporter
It works if you have an educated populace that can sort the wheat from the chaff. That seems to be an issue, a very serious one, with the way information is now processed by the public. When Rush and Beck and Olberman and Maddow and the Huffington Post and other web based sources are treated as hard core news by the consuming public we have a big problem.

More and more and more I'm sent blog stories as fact, when the only fact in them is that the writer googled some data and regurgitated them, or repeated a story he'd heard elsewhere without any of the fact checking and other checks and balances that went into "hardcore" reporting of old.

So count me in the "I'm not sold on it yet" category of folks who view the blogosphere as a potentially great development that still mostly looks like a bunch of nuts on both sides swapping stories and rumor and innuendo.
Jeff this could well be a first but I agree with you. I have been guilty of reposting more than one blog without doing any research into the source or the facts.Much to my later embarrassment. The "sheeple" tend to believe anything put out by people pushing an Agenda if it is taken up by the popular press. Successive Governments are well aware of this and have been pushing their propaganda via their spin experts for many many years. (settle Jim I'm talking about both sides of the house). At least the net gives people the opportunity to put an opposing view. The secret is as you say Jeff, sorting the fact from the fantasy.
 

Jeff Young

GT40s Supporter
Agreed. I'm not denying the web has positives when it comes to news dissimenation but fully agree with you it is too easy (as I have done at times) to fall prety to something that sounds good but is completely false.
 

Pat

Supporter
Agreed. I'm not denying the web has positives when it comes to news dissimenation but fully agree with you it is too easy (as I have done at times) to fall prety to something that sounds good but is completely false.

Very true, my daughter called me two weeks ago very upset that Jon Bon Jovi had died. It was an internet hoax.
Of concern to me is the automated "filter bubble" slanting of search results. Here is an interesting TED presentation that I found very thought provoking.

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com

As a test, google search "The military is"...
 

Jim Craik

Lifetime Supporter
Jeff this could well be a first but I agree with you. I have been guilty of reposting more than one blog without doing any research into the source or the facts.Much to my later embarrassment. The "sheeple" tend to believe anything put out by people pushing an Agenda if it is taken up by the popular press. Successive Governments are well aware of this and have been pushing their propaganda via their spin experts for many many years. (settle Jim I'm talking about both sides of the house). At least the net gives people the opportunity to put an opposing view. The secret is as you say Jeff, sorting the fact from the fantasy.

Pete,

I'm right with you there, I think most of us have driven that track.
 
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