The Internet's New Alternate Reality

Hugh Pickens writes "Tim Rutten writes in the LA Times that when President Obama released his long form birth certificate last week, one of the striking things about the reaction to the president's calm and — to reasonable minds — entirely persuasive appearance in the White House briefing room Wednesday was the rapidity and ease with which so many leading birthers rejected the evidence he presented. 'Until very recently, if every professional news organization in the nation examined a charge and found it baseless, it was — for all intents and purposes — dropped,' writes Rutten. 'Today, the growth of the Internet has drained the noun "news" of its former authority. If you don't like the facts presented on the sites of established news organizations, you simply keep clicking until you find one whose "facts" accord with your beliefs.'"

Comments

That's not a bug, it's a feature

[davide marney]

"Until very recently, if every professional news organization in the nation examined a charge and found it baseless, it was — for all intents and purposes — dropped. "

Yes, until very recently, a few mass media companies controlled the news, and if they collectively decided something wasn't news-worthy anymore, it was dropped. Happily, we have the internet now, and can talk among ourselves without being told what to pay attention to and what to ignore.

By the way, has any "professional news organization" actually dug into the latest birth certificate and examined it, professionally? I've read countless stories like this one about how crazy and all alternate-reality those Birthers are, but actual investigations by electronic document specialists? None that I've seen.

I think anyone who downloads and inspects the long-form certificate PDF [whitehouse.gov] from the whitehouse web site will be struck as I was by its many peculiarities. Not being a PDF expert, I have no idea how to interpret what I'm seeing, but it certainly doesn't look like any other PDF I've seen.

Re:Where did the lost authority come from?

[CrimsonAvenger]

The difference is that McCain's birth was questioned, the question was resolved, and people moved on. Since then the only questioning of McCain's birth has been as a counter-example to the questioning of Obama's birth. On the other hand, Obama's birth was questioned, the question was resolved, and people continued to question anyway.

The real difference is that McCain's birth was questioned, IMMEDIATELY answered, and we moved on.

Obama's birth was questioned, the question was ignored for three years, then suddenly he decides to answer it. People wonder why he didn't answer as soon as it was questioned, and assume that he couldn't answer it then, hence the delay.

Face it, the three year delay followed by a sudden about-face just makes the people who are inclined to conspiracy theories that much more certain that there's something to hide.

Note also the argument that it was illegal to show his long-from birth certificate was a silly one from the get-go. Since Obama has miraculously managed to get a waiver to show it, there's no reason to suspect he couldn't have gotten a waiver in 2008....