When Stories Such As This Flow

6 June 2002


through the weblogs and the news aggregator, I find myself wondering the following:


  • Is this simply another case of ”don’t believe everything you find on the Internet?”


  • Is this a story by someone with an ax to grind?


  • Was this so insignificant that the mainstream media decided not to pursue it?


  • Is some other dynamic at work?


  • Have I found a weblog run by a top-notch person with great skills?

Clearly, there are times when I’ve read a weblog story and used the mainstream media to verify or fact-check it. As I come to know the weblog writers’s styles and approaches, I find myself checking mainstream media stories against the weblogs.
I was engineering school at a time when electronic calculators were invented. I know it is hard for anyone to imagine today, but we literally ”checked” our first calculators with the sliderules ”we knew we could count on.” It seems silly now, but it was the only way we could gain confidence in the new tool! Checking weblog reporting is sometimes like this! Once we get to know our ”reporters” we’ll gain more confidence.

A picture named rice.gifTalking with a British friend a few minutes ago, he told me of a recent story…  The story appeared in Der Spiegel, and quite a few weblogs, but appears to have not been carried by US publications. Why? [Scripting News]

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