Here's the announcement by Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, that the "influential" Mr. Rove will inspire the class of '08 with his words at this year's graduation. Is everyone at the school happy with that announcement? Not at all, as Marty Kaplan explains.
I stumbled onto this excellent column by Damian Thompson about the modern proliferation of pseudo-information. That is, the way various formerly obscure conspiracy cults (UFO’s, moon landing hoaxers, second-shooters, 9/11 Truthers, Flat Earthers, Young Earthers, Inflating Earthers, etc) manage to disseminate their beliefs convincingly to wide and gullible audiences.
Before Gutenberg, only reliable, church-approved texts could be widely read in western culture. Then a new technology came along, and suddenly heretics like Martin Luther or Galileo could publish widely before the church could disappear them and their ideas. It took a few generations to settle down to the publishing and editorial ethic that made it clear which information was reliable and accepted, and which was fringe. It helped that there was still some economic hurdle to wide publication, and publishers needed to maintain their reputations. This lasted until almost the end of the 20th century.
Now, we have the web. Any misinformed but layout-talented individual can produce publications (pages) that look as wise, vetted, and reliable as Britannica. But without the necessity of prissy little details like fact checking or actual expertise in the subjects being purveyed. Must it be another couple of generations before the average browser can tell fact from fancy?
Missouri's first State Poet Laureate. Walter Bargen. I can't tell you how pleased I am by this. Walter is a first-rate poet and, just if not more importantly, a decent human being. He will be formally introduced on February 13th at the state capitol. After that, he will serve a…
I came across an article a few days ago written by John Hockenberry, an award-winning journalist who once worked for NBC's Dateline and is now a fellow at MIT's Media Lab. Titled "You Don't Understand Our Audience": What I learned about network television at Dateline NBC, this article is a…
I remember when the FBI unleashed their "Carnivore" internet monitoring system in the 1990's. Everyone was up in arms because the FBI could listen in to all email and run it through filters to store a database of all emails containing suspicious phrases, or from specific addresses. The controversy got…