I recommend reading this one: The Daily Howler. Here's the link:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2005
THE WEAK IN REVIEW: The New York Times went to war late last year, and another battle in that war is being waged in today’s paper. “Myths Run Wild in Blog Tsunami Debate,” reads the headline atop a John Schwartz report. And yes, it turns out as you might have guessed—those bloggers have been up to old tricks in discussing the recent tsunami. Schwartz seems to have consulted one “expert”—an “expert” who said what he wanted to hear:
SCHWARTZ (1/3/05):
he blogosphere's tendency toward crackpot theorizing and political smack down could not be suppressed for long.
''It's so much of what they feed on, so much of what they are,'' said James Surowiecki, the author of ''The Wisdom of Crowds.''
Schwartz devotes his piece to the crackpot things people have said on liberal sites like Democratic Underground. Soon, his expert is waxing about the history of such hopelessly ill-informed cranks:
SCHWARTZ: Mr. Surowiecki pointed out that there is nothing new about ill-informed rumor-mongering or other forms of oddness. ''There were always cranks,'' he said. ''Rumors have always been fundamental about the way people talk, or think, about politics or complicated issues.'' Instead of a corner bar or a Barcalounger, however, the location for today's speech is an online medium with a potential audience of millions.
There have always been idiots and cranks, Schwartz assures us. But now, the idiots have left their corner bars for the richer life they lead on the Net. Schwartz does note that foolish comments are often corrected by others on-line. But he closes on a more pleasing note. “In the tsunami discussion on Democratic Underground, some participants continued to post farfetched theories about what caused the earthquake based on pseudoscience and conspiracy,” he notes, “and on Wizbang, the vituperation continued unabated, spreading even to many victims of the disaster.”
Yes, this is the latest battle in the Times’ newest war—a war the paper has declared on the Net. If we may now engage in a bit of speculation, it has become fairly clear that some in Times Nation have just about had it with this rude medium, a medium in which wildly ill-informed people dare to challenge great orgs like the Times. Result? The paper began to publish silly attacks on the “blogosphere” late last year, and Schwartz continues the onslaught this morning. The Times is eager to let readers know how stupid those folks on the Net really are. They used to rant in their corner bars! But now, they’ve been given computers!
MORE: http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh010305.html
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