Posted on 11/22/2008 6:53:00 AM PST by Bean Counter
Who doesn’t love the Internet, right?
Well …
What’s in the soup?
Anyone out there a fan of the TV show “Boston Legal?” It’s a smartly written series about a high-powered quirky law firm. It often weaves in current events.
Take the latest episode. Attorney Alan Shore — played by James Spader — takes on an employer who fired one of his workers because she voted for Senator John McCain.
The employer’s position was — in essence — that if his employee had any sense at all, she would have realized that McCain was the wrong choice.
Shore’s defense of the employee? Americans have the right to vote for whomever they want. And every American can make that choice no matter how uninformed or unintelligent it is.
To help support his argument, Shore pointed to where many Americans get their news.
“People forgo newspapers for the Internet, where — instead of relying on credentialed journalists — they turn to these bloggers, sort of entry-level life forms that, intellectually, have yet to emerge from the primordial soup.”
Yikes!
Objection, your honor! I want to stand up for my blogger friends. In fact, we have several bloggers connected to The Columbian who are excellent.
The others out there? Well, come on, surely if you spoon up some of that soup, you’ll find something of worth. Right? So give them a chance!
Enough of my unwavering defense of bloggers. What I liked more about the Shore statement was his support of the importance of news from newspapers.
The point Shore is making is that newspapers are constantly vetting and editing news to give readers solid information. And as this crazy world of ever-expanding information continues, we all are looking for someone to make sense of it all. And that’s us.
As information overload continues on the Internet, newspapers will be looked at as a place of consistent credible information.
Newspapers, in fact, have always had credibility as their main focus.
Another important function of newspapers is to sort information. If there are thousands of stories out there on a topic, do you want to sort through those yourself, or would you like someone else to do it? Again, that’s us.
The Internet — for better or for worse — is a free-for-all. Never before has the phrase “buyer beware” been more important than when tasting … the soup.
Nuts!
There’s also a free-for-all going on with story comments on most Web sites. Ours as well. And some of them are, well, a little on the edge.
So an unsuspecting person might be reading a story on www.columbian.com and when he gets to the end … bam! Someone has thrown a hand grenade into the comments section.
We continually try to steer folks to be passionate and constructive, but there always are a few who think cheap shots are the way to go. There are plenty of Web sites out there that simply live on cheap shots. But we’d like ours to — again — be passionate and constructive.
One of the ideas we’re considering is to move our story comments into our forum section. Forums are a place where specific communities are formed to chat about a common interest.
Yes, some of these forums get a little carried away, but at least if you venture into the forum area, you mostly know what you’re getting into.
Hey, most all of us wish everyone in a society would have a level of respect for others. Sometimes I get so worked up about it I can only say one thing.
Nuts!
Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.
This article is just another in a continuing series of "Pimp my Blog, 'cuz I sure needs the hits" articles out of Lou that also denigrate the local blogosphere. The facts are that the columbian is seeking Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection because of failing subscriptions and ever falling advertising revenues.
Lou is not talking about DU, or DailyKos, or any other national blog. Lou is denigrating the four or five local bloggers right here in town. And the bloggers he is raving about include his Daughter who "blogs" off of the columbian's website about college.
Lou is very familiar with the local blogosphere because he spends a great deal of time lurking at sites like mine to see what the bloggers are talking about and for news tips about what is really happening here in town. The columbian's newsroom server hits my site at least 3-4 times a day, and is the number 10 most frequent visitor to my site.
More of the same thinly veiled insults against the local blogs, because Lou considers us all to be "unfair competition"...
Like many papers, the columbian is trying to horn in on the local free internet by denigration what anyone other than they do, even though they go for weeks at a time without even updating their own site.
What really kills me though is that here is the Editor making ill comments about the local bloggers and saying that "“People forgo newspapers for the Internet, where — instead of relying on credentialed journalists — they turn to these bloggers, sort of entry-level life forms that, intellectually, have yet to emerge from the primordial soup.”
According to Lou, the only "blooger" worth paying attention to are the columbian's employees who occasionally use their website. Everyone else is just pond scum to Brancaccio.
The fact is that this paper doesn't publish timely news, and they ignore what isn't reported on their Newsroom Police Scanner. They denigrate the local internet, yet we are one of their major sources for news of what is going on in town. There are a lot of people who will not have anything to do with the columbian, so the paper misses out on the majority of what might actually be interesting to people.
"If you do not read a newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read a newspaper, you are mis-informed."
Brancaccio is a Grade A moron.
I’ll take my chances w/the I’Net—with a smathering od faux-noose just to see what they’re lying about in general.
Semper Suspicious
Dick G
~~~~~
Newspapers, in fact, have always had credibility as their main focus.
Another important function of newspapers is to sort information. If there are thousands of stories out there on a topic, do you want to sort through those yourself, or would you like someone else to do it? Again, that’s us.
This fool was apparently dropped on his head recently. Even some responsible journalists (there are very few in the modern world) have come out and said they're ashamed of their bias. This guy is a complete, utter, drooling, knuckle-dragging idiot.
Boston Legal is mildly amusing thanks to William Shatner. However, it has a definite leftist agenda and the one conservative on the show, Denny Crane, played by Shatner, comes off as a buffoonish neanderthal.
Clearly a moronic article....back to Boston Legal...perhaps some of us watch the 60 minutes of Disney Alternative Lifestyle liberal pap for the 30 seconds (admittedly fake) of Shatner’s right wing zingers. I’ve been watching for a whole month now....missed the first (however many) years tho’.
I quit watching Boston Legal after the first year. It’s a blatant, over the top liberal propaganda program.
How is this particular Brancaccio anusmundi related to David Brancaccio, NPR San Fransicko Commietator caputinano?
Denny Crane voted for BHO.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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