Comments on: Screw Fair. Screw Balanced While You’re At It.

By: Matt K

Matt K — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:21:56 +0000

My problem with your vision of the Brave New World of News is the time investment required to go “swimming in the deep end.” It’s your job to trek out into the wild and wooly reaches of information on the Internet. You can afford to wallow in the many and varied Fonts of Opinionated Knowledge. Just by doing what you’re paid to do, you get exposed to enough differing points of view that you can piece together the nonsense into something that makes sense for you.

Me, it’s not my job to read everyone and their brother’s blog about all topics imaginable. The time in my day allows me to pick maybe one or two places from which to get news. Therefore, I’d like to find my news as unvarnished as possible. I don’t want to get all my news from someplace I completely disagree with, obviously. Neither do I want all my news from somewhere that is completely in accordance with all my personal opinions. That kind of thing leads to Dittoheads, for cryin’ out loud!

So I’d get off your high-horse about the shallows and the deep end. For many people, the choice between them isn’t a matter of personal mental and intestinal fortitude as you seem to indicate. It’s a simple matter of time. Plunging into the deep end is a luxury, sir.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:24:44 +0000

As I said in the post above, I think there will always be a market for a ‘just the faqs, m’am’ kind of news broadcast. And I do mean market, because NBC, ABC … even the BBC has a slant to their news. It’s just less obvious than on, say, Wonkette.

I guess I don’t understand why it’s selfish or irresponsible to embrace the direction things are going to go anyway? We can stand here and shake our fist at the damn kids with their blogs and their opinions, but … yeah, that ship has sailed. My impression is that a lot of the folks in the ‘generations yet to arrive’ you mention are already getting their news from a very biased source: their pal’s MySpace page, or a buddy’s blog. This news, specifically, is a very focused news topic: George’s success in sports, or Virginia’s latest crush. Just the same, it’s priming them for expecting the same kind of tone from other information sources.

That’s a market, right there, and the nature of capitalism (and America in particular) is that if there is a market it will be filled.

To be kind of crass (and I certainly mean no offense) if you’re having trouble ‘wading through opinions’, then you need to stay in the shallows. Stick to one of the big news sites for your information, and don’t try heading out to ’sea’.

If you can handle the deep water, though, I say why the hell not? It’s pretty damned exciting out in the far end of the pool.

By: David

David — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:03:25 +0000

that’s all well & good (so to speak) for those of us older than, say, 21, who have hopefully developed enough brains to sort through the trash to get to the treasure (and, of course, each person’s definition of those two is their own & no one else’s); however, for the generations that are yet to arrive, yours is a remarkably selfish & irresponsible position – without some appreciation for the importance of plainly finding and recording the facts, so that all is not simply opinion, we will eventually become unaccustomed, and even unable, to do so.

where would we be, for example, without the Dictionary?
if the only way i could define a word and its possible meaning was to go and ask any number of people what they think it means, it might be incredibly entertaining, but would it help me reach a real understanding of the word itself? perhaps.

when someone gives their viewpoint but are not encouraged to disclose why they feel the way they do, and are not held accountable for presenting the possibility that another viewpoint may be somewhat valid, then you have Fox News.
they might be right about everything they say, but how can i decide if i agree?
should i just use my gut (shout-out to Mr. Colbert), or my mind?
well, if there are other viewpoints that effectively counter the first, then i don’t really have any to compare it to.
on the other hand, if i am forced to wade thru a sea of opposing opinions, i may eventually forget what i was trying to understand in the first place.

forgive me for saying so, but it seems an important, and difficult issue, and your ‘answer’ to it seems flippant and underdeveloped.

and to think, this was about videogaming journalism!