In one of those odd coincidences, Richard Tomkins had an article in this mornings Financial Times entitled The Death of Truth which discusses the revolution in the way people get their news, now that we have a multiplicity of sources with virtually no editorial judgement. Specifically talking about blogs, and borrowing heavily from Harry G. Frankfurt’s seminal tome, Tomkins writes:
Thanks to technology and new media, we are entering a world of grassroots or citizen journalism in which anyone with the right handheld device and an internet connection can not only download news from the web whenever they like, but upload it, ann describes a new era in which news is no longer gospel but a stream of shallow, trivial chatter delivered by amateurs; in which truth yields to personal feelings, uninformed opinion and downright ignorance.
As were discussing this, up popped a perfect illustration of Tompkins thesis. You can see for yourself in the discussion following a gleeful report of an anti-nano protest (and bit of harmless fun) in Chicago.