Do bloggers deserve basic journalistic protections?

“Are bloggers entitled to the same constitutional protection as traditional print and broadcast journalists?”

Uh, freedom of speech, bitch. Freedom of press, same monster. We all have the same rights. You’re talking about privileges.

“If the courts allow every Tom, Dick and Matt who wants to call himself a journalist to invoke the privilege to protect confidential sources, the public will become even less trusting than it already is of all journalists.” [emphasis mine]

Point made.

Or… are you talking about privileges, you silly man?

Speaking of Tom, I think your next campaign after you slay those bloggers is to destroy all those opinion-mongering pamphleteers. Too bad Thomas Paine is already dead, you could’ve gone after him and his un-fact-checked rant against the monarchy, “Common Sense”.

Eighteen’s the age when people go, “How old is Shawn?”

“He’s 18.”

“Eighteen?? Wow!! Time sure flies.”

Geeze, I feel old.

Ew… There’s nothing that turns me off more than disease… okay, except for ugliness.

I’m thinking of watching providing commentary on movies and TV shows. Maybe I’ll start with The Ring Two tomorrow.

Why does Burger King have a Bill of Rights? What is this travesty against democracy? It’s a burger monarchy! You have no rights!

!!!!!!!!!!!

Weblogs have been getting more press recently. They’re entering the mainstream consciousness. Some bloggers think they’re important. Some think they’ll slay the mainstream media. They tout the diversity of weblogs. They tout the open discussions. They tout how weblogs are organic self-correcting mechanisms. Maybe one weblog is wrong, but the general diverse blogosphere can provide a clearer picture greater than the sum of its parts. And maybe some weblogs are like that, but on the whole, weblogs aren’t what they’re all cracked up to be. Thus, begins my multi-day critique on the state of the blogosphere.

Part 1: There ain’t nothing synergistic about an echo

To have open discussion, you must first have an open mind. The truth is, most people like their minds closed. They won’t admit it, but they do. People insulate themselves with those who have like opinions. With the news choices out there, you can pick which ones best suit you. The ones that best suit you, of course, will be the ones that present things in the way you agree with. We can have someone watch Fox News and listen to conservative talk radio. That’s their news. That’s their world presented by the filter of other people.

Now, instead of watching only Fox News and listening to conservative talk radio, let’s say they also get their news from that newfangled internet. These people read and keep their own weblogs. If they’re that discerning with their news choices, they will only read weblogs they agree with. And what will they write about?

WHY! Only the issues they know about! With only the viewpoints they know about! They create their own little echo chamber. These people link to each other and repeat the same viewpoints. They don’t contribute to discussion; they echo.

That’s a problem. People insulate themselves from the other side, the things they don’t agree with, and instead of the truth arising, myths simply perpetuate themselves.

That is one reason why I haven’t been writing too much political stuff lately… for fear of becoming an echoblog that has nothing new to add to the discussion.

Well, whenever I don’t have school, I start my day with comics. (Hooray for Easter Vacation!) Otherwise, it’s the first thing I do when I get home from school.

Today, Bob and George makes me feel old. Geeze, I can’t believe I’ve been reading this crap that long to remember it. The problem is, I keep reading it out of habit, and every time just when I’m about to quit reading, it becomes just funny enough to keep reading, but only for a limited time.

Sinfest makes me feel good today.

Shaw Island makes me feel worldly. Hey, I know what “pho” is! I get it! The sad thing is, my friends and I used to use that joke all the time when there was a place called something like Pho Quyen. And I remember seeing one on the east coast called Pho Kien.

Liveblogging starting now!

WOOWEEE! A BOX! CROWN MOLDING, YEAH BABY! *snore*

9:06 PM

It’s all about presentation. You can have the worst, most boring idea in the world, but it’s all about the presentation.

Is it just me, or is Angie just… ugh. She bugs me. Her voice.

You can definitely see the difference between Magna and Net Worth, now. One team is exceptional, bright, and knows how to pull together in order to win, even if they weren’t originally thrilled with an idea. Craig wasn’t a great leader, but the team was mature enough to pull together. There’s a little disappointment there because Craig is obviously the weakest link and if they lose, he can’t be fired. The other team is just full of all the whiny people.

9:19 PM

That boardroom pissed me off. They all ganged up on Erin just because she was the most convenient scapegoat. Erin’s the smartest one on the team. It wasn’t her best performance, but she’s not the reason the team lost. They didn’t even let her talk. At least Stephanie said the PM was the reason the team lost. Angie’s condescending attitude bugs me even more now. Her little speech at the beginning, you could just feel the BS dripping.

Chris is very unprofessional, but I didn’t like how Erin brought up the chewing tobacco — that was low. But I can understand it because she couldn’t get a word in edgewise. If you’re under pressure, you do what you can.

9:30PM

ERIN! YOU BLEW IT! Right at the end! You had it, and then you had to do that. Don’t diss George and Carolyn! That’s a no-no! I saw it coming right at the end. Once you winked, I knew it was over.

I missed George and Carolyn’s comments because I was typing, but I think they’re wrong. Angie is horrible, and she’s the reason why the team lost that task.

9:43

Ooh, and let me say that I was so excited about The Office because Americans always take British shows and make them better. So far, I think it’s funny. (Note: I have not seen the British one; I just know it exists.)

Perhaps from my basic core belief in “Je pense, donc je suis,” you could infer that I would not want to live in a brain-damaged state. Well, I’m just here to say, don’t yoink the feeding tube and keep me alive as long as possible. I don’t think idle words and experimental thoughts should provide clear and convincing evidence if something bad should ever happen to me.

Sorry, folks. The Agnoiologist has been experiencing a bout of his own personal stupidity lately. Things are well now, though. Thus, we will be returning to your regularly scheduled fun-filled Agnoiologist entries tomorrow.

I take that back, not returning. Returning is not possible. We will move forward. Forward to new tastes of our curious blend of highbrow and lowbrow humor. Enjoy.

Why spend an eternity untangling when the truth can cut through it all?

I’ve done some more metaphorical thinking and realized I can’t let go of yesterday just like that. Life is complicated, messy, full of knots: I have to untangle yesterday.

I can tell myself all I want to let go of yesterday, but it is much easier said than done.

The other day, I went without eating breakfast, and I felt so sick. I used to be able to do that all the time, and it wouldn’t bother me at all. Geeze, I’m still young. This shouldn’t be happening to me already.

Good times singing Spice Girls with various people, especially my sister and my cousin. I’ve been bumpin’ it in the school parking lot, along with Ricky Martin. The 90’s were so awesome.

To seize today, you must let go of yesterday.

In other words, if you try to move forward while still looking backwards, you’ll just keep bumping into things.

Hm… “to seize today, you must let go of yesterday.” That’s definitely my new mantra. I should try saying it every morning.

Do things really change quickly, or do they change gradually and you just don’t notice it until it hits you all at once?

I wore a polo shirt with a pink tie today. The tie was very loose and the green and blue striped shirt had its collar popped. I borrowed one of my sister’s pink and blue belts that matched pretty well with my tie. It was way too metro for me and probably everyone else too. Yeah, well, that’s the point of experimenting: To find out what works and doesn’t work. And a lot of times, things don’t work.

My dog died.

No, he didn’t. But if I lived halfway across the world from you, how would you know? Back up a second, how would you even know if I really have a dog or not?

Now, let’s say I don’t live in America, but in Iraq. What’s to prevent me from posting complete lies about what’s going on there? How would people know? People link to the lies, propagate them, and their opponents arguments are thwarted by lies.

And so what if the truth comes out. A lie can go around the world before the truth can even get its boots on. The damage is already done.

Alright, stop thinking small. Instead of a weblog, let’s make a newspaper. We brag about the world’s new interconnectedness, but, really, how worldly are people? How many of you have been to other countries? To other hemispheres? To other states?

How do you really know what’s going on in other places? It’s less true than in the past, but it’s still possible to control what people think about places that are far away.

Going back to the newspaper, let’s make one that is full of lies. About people that never existed. About natural disasters that never happened. Who’s stopping us? The freedom of speech includes the freedom to lie.

Okay, there are lies against libel and defaming someone’s character, but who says we have to do that? There is no law against misinformation.

Make the paper internally inconsistent. How many people look at the corrections in a newspaper? Correct typos that never occured.

Create a newspaper of lies and see if the truth will ever catch up.

EDIT: Addendum: And what does the average person know of science? Not much… case in point: evolution, global climate change. Producing fake science stories that reference fake studies. What can anyone do about it?

Found this article, Ninth Circuit Doesn’t Flip Over Use of Coin in Verdict, via Patterico’s Pontifications.

I particularly liked this part:

“‘If you look into the subjective considerations that any juror may contemplate, it’s hard to know the proper place to draw the line,’ he said. ‘Today’s it’s coin-flipping. Tomorrow, in an extreme example, someone might say there should be intelligence tests.'”

I wouldn’t even call that a slippery slope. That’s more like falling off a cliff.

As much as ****** touts itself with things like tsunami relief funds, there is a real culture of apathy at ******. I definitely want to pick an active college.

EDIT: Edited out my school name so they don’t own my soul.