docweasel.com
still an outlaw in their eyes

site menu

docweasel.com
blog
comics
games
monty python
contact
politics

The "Jump to Conclusions" Crowd

by docweasel May 6 2006

Today Ellen Goodman takes bloggers to task for jumping the gun in condemning Jill Carroll, whose press conference, which she now claims was made under duress, was not sufficiently harsh on the terrorists or praising of the Coalition.

The printouts on my desk describe the 28-year-old journalist, a hostage and victim for 82 terrifying days, as something
between Patty Hearst and Baghdad Jane, between a traitor and “Princess Jill.” TBone posted a potshot, calling Carroll “a liar” and the kidnapping “a total scam.” PA Pundits said that “I still just can’t get past her being (for the most part) unharmed.” And Debbie Schlussel called her a “spoiled brat America-hater.”

As Internet users, we’ve learned a lot about the good, the bad, the true, and the false in cyberspace. If you Google an illness, you get links to a cutting-edge cure for cancer or a website for pills made from apricot pits. Dan Gillmor, author of “We the Media,” says that “people are having to learn a new kind of media literacy” and that “quality will end up surfacing.” Maybe so. Maybe not.

If newspapers are the first rough draft of history, a blog is like reading a never-ending draft as it’s being written and published, mostly unedited, without standards or correction boxes. Defenders will tell you that blogs are “fact-checked” in the rough and tumble of the
marketplace by other bloggers. But don’t count on it.

The difference between old media and new, MSM and blog, says Al
Tompkins of the Poynter Institute, is the difference between sitting at a restaurant and having your food delivered nicely plated or standing at a buffet nibbling constantly. It’s the 24/7 news cycle brought down to the 604,800 seconds-per-week cycle.

Yeah, darn those internet blahgerz, jumping to conclusions and posting false and premature judgment on a news story. Goodman gets in her pajamas jabs too. Of course, the MSM, in whose continued dominance Goodman has a vested interest, would never jump to conclusions or get a major story wrong like this, or spread false information around unchecked.

Well, almost.

  • Previous Osama & Moulitsas17 years ago
  • Next Margaret Cho is a stupid whore17 years ago

site

docweasel.com
blog
comics
sitemap
contact

categories

art
articles
docweasel
gaming
media

games

games
doom & doom][
stronghold
gaming

monty python

monty python
mpfc albums
mp movies
mpfc tv series
2023 docweasel.com. contact us with comments, complaints or suggestions email docweasel.com | join the discussion or bitch and rant at will at DWF forum

categories

blog
art
photos
articles
eros
fiction
humor
opinion
politics
dw website
gaming
movies
movie interviews
movie mini-reviews
movie reviews
movie news
music
chords & tabs
live reviews
metal
music news
music reviews
music video
teevee

recent posts

Dec 24 2012

Docweasel Christmas #10: Christmas Secrets & Memories

Jun 30 2007

New maxims for the LameStreamMedia: Mape’s Law and Beauchamping

Jun 7 2012

Origin / Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas review

Jul 31 2007

Word Brundishing: the art of running your mouth

monthly archive