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We're stuck with the Internet for better or worseJan 02, 2009 (The Duncan Banner - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Pardon me if I get a little sidetracked from local events for a moment and veer off into the world of cyberspace. I personally spend a lot of time on the Internet. I get a portion of my news from there, and that portion is growing because I can no longer get some of my favorite newspapers in the area. However, there are a couple of things that I stay away from on the Internet. One is blogs and the second is message boards. I take that back, I go to one message board, and that is on The Banner's Web site. I monitor what is going on there and try to take care of posts that aren't acceptable. But when you're dealing with a message board, you don't know who you're really dealing with. It could be your neighbor or it could be someone that's from Nova Scotia. No one is truly identified on a message board, and so that usually gives a poster more courage and a lot less credibility. It was brought to my attention that the poster's IP address would identify him or her, but I'm not smart enough to figure that out. I need a name. Not having a name attached also loosens up the tongue for people to spout off about people in a manner that is sometimes unacceptable and sometimes untrue. I've posted once or twice on a message board, and it just doesn't suit me. If I want to say something, I want people to know where it came from (note the picture in the third row of this column). Then there are blogs, where somebody, nine times out of 10, is getting news from one newspaper, TV station or, yes, Web site, and putting it on their own as news. I really haven't used a blog, but it seems real similar to what happens in this column, people let loose thoughts and ideas in a chronological order. In other words, it is for people who have time enough to update a blog every day, which I don't have, and think very highly of their opinion. Again, I'm sure they're useful, but to me, it only reaches a certain degree. The Internet is a different beast where someone like Matt Drudge, who called himself a purveyor of gossip in a lawsuit filed by Sidney Blumenthal, can become a wealthy person for reporting what may or may not be true. In Blumenthal case, Drudge had reported that Blumenthal had beaten his wife and retracted the information the next day, citing bad information. Then there was the Nebraska football fan who posted a site that got him sued by The Oklahoman. The fan, James W. Conradt, worked in the University of Texas IT department and published a story that Sam Bradford and Landry Jones had both been arrested for intent to distribute cocaine. The story was taken seriously and was reported by other news agencies as fact. But stories like that abound, not only on the Web, but also in newspapers, and maybe that is what scares me the most. Newspapers have become consumed with being first and not right. They are trying to compete with the speed of the Internet. The Internet allows anonymity, which Conradt said in the Lincoln Journal Star, "brings out the worst in people." But, we're stuck with the Internet for better or worse. -- Ron Booth is the managing editor for The Duncan Banner. He can be reached at 580-255-5354, Ext. 166, or via e-mail at [email protected]. To see more of The Duncan Banner, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.duncanbanner.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Duncan Banner, Okla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |