Wonkette and the Ethics of Online Journalism

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "The New York Times offers up a thought-provoking article ('First With the Scoop, if Not the Truth' - free reg. req.) on Ana Marie Cox, proprietor of the popular inside-the-beltway gossip blog Wonkette. Known for her site's 'gossipy, raunchy, potty-mouthed' coverage of Washington politics, site owner Nick Denton is quoted in the article as saying, 'I think it's implicit in the way that a Web site is produced that our standards of accuracy are lower. Besides, immediacy is more important than accuracy, and humor is more important than accuracy.' Needless to say, such a statement raises some interesting questions about the growing influence of blogs and other non-traditional online news sources. That being said, does the nature of the World Wide Web in fact give sites like Wonkette, Drudge, or even Slashdot a free pass on accuracy if it means the difference between getting the scoop or not?"

Comments

Re:Old media get a free pass as well...

[king-manic]

Actually, you've heard "Democrat good, Republican bad", because it's largly true. With bush being the biggest story, there's little else to the issue.

Re:Demographics

[Deitiker]

*laugh* I love it!!!! We are not partisan, and I will prove it by going on a partisan rant! ROR! You even managed to get modded up. This rocks!

Re:Demographics

[maxpublic]

True, but lately I've noticed in an increase in leftist-loonie morons talking about the 'evils' of capitalism and and the moral depravity of actually having money. I've also noticed that a not-insignificant chunk of these folks are from Europe, and a good many of their posts sound like the jealous rants of a small child smarting over the fact that the neighbor kid has a bigger and flashier toy truck.

Slashdot was decidedly libertarian even a year ago. But it seems to be attracting an increasing number of frothing-at-the-mouth, unthinking, party-line socialist douchebags who like nothing more than squawking about the virtues of socialism/totalitarianism and the horrors of capitalism/freedom, at the same time bandying about baseless insults about Americans.

Max