Thanks for writing - love R/WW. Might want to double-check the links, though.

FSJ posted Scoble's retort that PodTech is shifting business plans, but unless the new plan is to provide pollution and air quality monitoring solutions, the Podtech link should probably point to PodTech.net.

Cheers,

Scott

Rob

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes

Then the old adage kicks in: if a lie is repeated often enough, people will mistake it for the truth. I can recall one situation where the blogger who originated a false rumor finally admitted that he got it completely wrong, but unfortunately the damage had already been done.

All of this could be prevented with a little skepticism, which is what professional reporters -- and presumably professional bloggers -- are supposed to have in the first place. But if the bloggers aren't skeptical, the rest of us should be.

Personally I don't really subscribe to Valleywag, FSJ, etc.
I find myself sticking with mainstream media bloggers, such as the folks over at the guardian newspaper.

Until bloggers learn to research their facts and figures, well then every sensible person will be sticking with the main stream media, some of whom don't do a bad job of reporting it.

When Daniel Lyons, even posing as FSJ, writes something that seems to be a legitimate scoop, as this item did (no links to other sources and not really intended to amuse), why is it so wrong to flag that for people?

Can't we all use our judgment in deciding what's worthy of discussion whether it comes from a third-rate professional journalist or a first-rate professional journalist posing as a fake blogger? Yeah, I admit the categorization gets a little weird, but are you saying that Dan Lyons may never, ever stray from his little circumscribed role as a parodist because that would be too mind-blowing or something?

Hasn't the Internet taught us that the old ways of doing things are now up for grabs? Many bloggers are now journalists, many journalists are now bloggers. We all have to exercise judgment these days because there are so many sources of information out there, and most are not good.

And sometimes solid information can come in the most unexpected ways. I think that's what happened here.

I'm not sure exactly what your point is, but if you're trying to suggest that "it's okay" for bloggers to publish rumors because "everyone else does it", I couldn't agree less.

The internet has revolutionized much of our culture, but the principles of journalistic integrity haven't changed a bit. Either you've done your homework and validated your sources or you haven't. Whether your work appears in print, on television, or on the internet is irrelevant.

I'm aware that many information outlets have thrown journalistic integrity in the dumpster in a quest for higher ratings or catering to a particular niche audience. But the inevitable result is that only the least intelligent consumers will regard these outlets as reliable. I hope that's not the audience that you're trying to please.

Of course, everyone should exercise a healthy skepticism regardless of the source of information -- even reliable sources get it wrong sometimes. But if journalists and bloggers continue their race to the bottom of the integrity barrel, intelligent consumers won't bother with skepticism. We'll simply not believe a single word that any of you write.

cheers, Marcello

The weirdest thing about all of this was the way Scoble got so mad - and then proceeded to blame Daniel Lyons! It's not his fault that a whole lot of blogs reported as truth something said by a FAKE character on a SATIRICAL blog.

I'm most decidedly not saying that bloggers should publish rumors just because other bloggers are. In fact, I'm saying the opposite -- everybody has to exercise judgment, regardless of whether it's a blogger or journalist or something in between.

What I am saying is that just because Dan Lyons is a parodist (as well as bona fide journalist, btw) doesn't mean that he always has to stick to that format. Some people are suggesting that because he usually writes satire in his blog, that his blog must always be viewed as strictly satire. If he has something "real" to say, or so this post seems to suggest, he must go elsewhere.

That's kind of rigid thinking, wouldn't you agree?

(p.s. sorry for all the above comment posts. I kept getting error messages and didn't realize I was actually posting multiple times...can someone delete, oh, three of my comment posts?)

The satire is mostly fine*, but it's the lazy repetition of 'facts' that other bloggers trot out, that makes me uncomfortable. As Scoble points out, his phone number is on his site and not one person called to corroborate what FSJ had posted.

*did Lyons REALLY have to dig the knife in on the follow-up post? Seemed kinda personal.