Go to Rice University and spill the beans on Box 43, Folder 1!
Year / 2006
Wenclas Covers Up Nasdijj Worship
Radosh has the scoop. Apparently, the ULA’s ability to detect charlatans only applies in hindsight. (via Number One Hit Song)
Incidentally, the ULA cache claims that the source came from edrants. But I should point out that it was the imposter who identified himself as “Nasdijj” who left a comment, not me.
In the meantime, to prove that I am not a demi-puppet, I publicly challenge King Wenclas to talk about these inconsistencies and other issues on The Bat Segundo Show, if he dares. King, if you’re out there, you know my email. If so, drop me your phone #. Do you have what it takes to tango with the Bat?
Today Takes Us Elsewhere…
…but…
- Large Hearted Boy offers a Book Notes installment with Ander Monson.
- We’ve been declared poison by the Morning News, but we point out the Tournament of Books all the same. No clue on when it starts, but the books and readers lineup look spiffy.
- The SFist talks with Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes.
- Are there too many books by journalists?
- Think Progress has been thoroughly debunking last night’s SotU speech. Not that it will do a lot of good.
- Jack Bauer is a Democrat? Given the way he kills and manipulates, I’d say he’s a Lieberman Democrat.
- Tarkovsky on Tolstoy.
- What’s worse? Cell phone rambling or Garrison Keillor rambling? A strong case can be made for the latter.
- No more telegrams from Western Union.
- You learn something new every day: William Vollmann’s middle name is Trevor.
Primer
To Journalists
I can understand a newsppaer’s authoritarian impulse. But it seems that preventing a substantial bloc of people from accessing content is a sure path to extinction. In other words, if they can’t find the story at your newspaper, they’ll go somewhere else. Or worse: they’ll do your work for you, perhaps beating you to the punch. It was proven the other day by Jason Kottke that the New York Times‘ forced registration is having a serious effect upon its Google search engine results.
Note to newspaper editors: You want to win this war? Stop declaring this a war. It is no longer 1996. It is 2006. The playing field is level. The Internet is an undeniable fact. People click on links, comment upon posts, print things off, and send things to other people.
Pop quiz, hotshot: Who broke the James Frey story? The Internet or a newspaper?
Learn to accept the fact that bloggers are linking to your content. Learn to accept the fact that bloggers may not always be as accurate as you, but that they are faster than you and, in the best of cases, they are quick to correct their mistakes and offer multiple perspectives to a story. Learn to work with them. Credit them when they have the facts before you and they’ll do likewise. Make your content available to as many people as possible. Invite commenting and, if you are truly concerned with “family values,” hire someone to monitor the comments.
Of course, you can also live in your lofty castles and pretend we don’t exist. That’s fine. But you know what John Donne said about solipsism. And when the axe falls and you lose your jobs, we’ll be there communicating with the audience that you talked down to. All because you thought that you were the authoritarian voice and that they’d still listen to you no matter what you said. Well, if you want to play that way, you’d better be on your game. Because there will be a thousand bloggers there before you. And if even a soupcon of these are good, you’re going to be in serious trouble.