The Blog Clog Myth

Neil McIntosh separates the tiny mite of truth from the wishful thinking that led Andrew Orlowski to announce that Google would solve the blogging noise “problem” by removing weblogs from its main search tab. —The Blog Clog Myth (Guardian)

Yet another example of the difference between journalism and academic research. Journalists, in their noble and important efforts to communicate complex subjects to a broad audience of non-specialists, often get basic facts wrong — the kind of mistakes that peer-readers are supposed to catch in articles submitted to academic journals. But building a whole news item on a stretched point of interpretation, and not checking with sources to confirm the stretch, is not good journalistic practice. Where is Mr. Orlowski’s editor, and why isn’t Orlowski simply posting his opinions on a weblog — where the ethical standards of journalism don’t apply?