There’s a really dumb story in the news right now. (You’re thinking, “Just one?”) Well … I have one in mind that I think is really dumb. <\/p>\n
But what if I write a post about how dumb it is? I have no illusions about the effect of this blog, but to some very small<\/i> degree that only makes the story “what people are talking about,” and therefore “news.” <\/p>\n
This is an uncomfortable fact about the modern world. <\/p>\n
Back when there was a small cadre of newscasters who controlled the public’s access to stories, they could exercise some taste and common sense and say “a story about [dumb thing] isn’t news.” <\/p>\n
Now you have “what’s hot” on Alexa, and “most emailed” on the NYT, and “top searches” all over the place. <\/p>\n
“This is what people are talking about! We need a story on that!” <\/p>\n
No, you don’t. <\/p>\n
That’s where niche publishing comes in. There’s obviously a market for niche stories about pension and benefits legislation, but there’s also a niche for news content that is selected and presented from a particular point of view. That means bias, of course — because the editor is deciding what’s worthy to be reported and what’s not — but … so what? Bias is unavoidable. Just be honest about it. <\/p>\n
When the world is overflowing with content noise, content curation is the order of the day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s a really dumb story in the news right now. (You’re thinking, “Just one?”) Well … I have one in mind that I think is really dumb. But what if I write a post about how dumb it is? I have no illusions about the effect of this blog, but to some very small degree …<\/p>\n