Bloggers spread mythology, unlike real journalists, uh, except when real journalists do also: In this piece by C.W. Neiius of the SF Chronicle. he raises the concern that bloggers who spread rumors might be a preview of the “future of journalism.”
Quote:
“The problem is,” says Ellen Hume, a Boston-based media analyst who has worked for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and PBS television, “you get to the point where people prefer to believe the myth.”
Since when did spreading mythology become a blogger thing and not a journalist thing?
It wasn’t bloggers, but journalists at major media institutions (including most of those for whom Hume used to work) who last week spread the mythology about the death of a guy who claimed to, but did not, create the frozen TV dinner.
Quote:
One of the dirty little secrets of journalism is that reporters rarely have time to investigate every claim people make about their pasts. If you want to embellish, just fool one reporter for one article, then you can use it to show other reporters that your story checked out. It also helps to adopt such accouterments as the cufflinks Thomas wore shaped like TV dinner trays.
Sounds to me like bloggers are merely carrying on a family tradition.
