Nick Coleman: Blogged down in Web fantasy

Nick Coleman: Blogged down in Web fantasy: "Over the years -- not that it's anyone's business -- I have voted for a lot of Democrats, an independent or two and a few Republicans (all is forgiven, Gov. Arne Carlson). I hope that I have made a lot of politicians angry, but, again, most were Democrats, a few were Republicans, and all of them were in power. That's the job of journalism -- to scrutinize the actions of those in power."

Right Nick. That's just the problem. You aren't doing your job. Well, journalists aren't doing their job. And although a few of you (us actually, thank you very much) might actually be the type to run around getting scoops and interviewing sources, MOST newsrooms do what bloggers do. They regurgitate other peoples news feeds.

Check google news someday, and then check the Associated Press's releases. Most articles will be one to one.

Fact checking? Well, the huge media houses might actually still do that, but I suspect most smaller newsrooms rely on each individual journalist to get their facts straight, and a good portion of them will simply swallow the national news source.

Now let's get to the real issue, scrutinizing the actions of those in power. You don't do it.

Not really.

You were all over the blowjob, but the media swallowed when they should have spit prior to the war. Many of the stories that have been covered by the mainstream media in the last six months (about Iraq and about the candidates) have actually been discussed for ages in the blogosphere. Discussed at a time when they were actually relevant to informed decision making.

They were ignored by the mainstream media.

And now that the media has messed up with Rathergate, another important story that IS valid will not be covered. Not by CBS and most likely not by any of the other major networks either.

Stop being defensive and stop being insulting Mr. Coleman. The Media dropped the ball decades ago with the Iran-Contra stories. Now something has come along that makes it all a bit more obvious. Because blogs represent the ENTIRE political spectrum. Not the sanitized middle of the road corporately acceptable mush of the mainstream.

Blogs ARE opinionated. The blogosphere is one big giant letter to the editor. Even worse, they are the letters you never would have published. The letters that make you say to yourself, "Yeah, that's it!". The letters that make you feel a little less alone, a little less out of place, and a lot more powerful.

The best thing about blogs is that I don't need to decipher corporate ledgers or trace down relationships inside of boardrooms in order to identify their potential slant. Most blogs ARE biased, but they wear their bias on their sleeve which allows me to actually form my own opinion much more easily.

Blogs most likely won't replace the classic newsroom, but if we are lucky they might get us all to do our job a little bit better.

Boing Boing: Solar gear jacket

Boing Boing: Solar gear jacket
Uh great, it's ugly as sin AND the company claims IP rights to the idea of wiring clothing.

SeV owns the intellectual property rights associated with the incorporation of third-party wires into apparel through the PAN's series of internal, hidden conduits.


I suspect there may be some wearable computing innovators who could realistically claim to have been there done that.

Otherwise, I like the idea of built in solar collectors. It solves soooo many problems.

Boing Boing: Stop buying food -- become a "freegan"

Boing Boing: Stop buying food -- become a "freegan"

First off, this isn't new. People have been dumpster diving for ages. Ask anyone who was a punk or squatter in the 80's or even earlier. We learned most about it from barefoot types. The difference is that we were actually homeless or extremely poor, and we frequently combined it with a social concience, organizing massive stir-fries for other homeless, distributing the goodies to soup kitchens and other groups.

What I see in this story are a bunch of young proffesionals raiding resources that could be better used by the truly needy. That sucks.