Drudge and the Swamp Dwellers
I feel like I need a shower. A long one.
I have just emerged from the online swamp known as “comments,” and boy, that’s a slimy neighborhood.
The Drudge Report published an unnamed-source item late last week on Condi Rice being at the top of Mitt Romney’s veep list. Within hours, the media world ran with it. The timing of the item was suspect, and the lemmings who repeated it helped promulgate a story that was extremely unlikely to be true.
After putting fingers to keyboard for The Daily Beast on why the practice of repeating stories without vetting them is unethical, hundreds of comments poured in. Many agreed that the media blew it. Others simply wanted to attack Drudge, in especially nasty ways. And still others used it as a way to bludgeon either Obama or Romney.
What wasn’t addressed was the fact that many of the comments were so hateful as to be unreadable. Which brings me to my next screed. What happened to “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it all”? We wonder why our politicians’ discourse is so unpleasant and why no one can get anything done in Congress. And then we mimic their behavior on message boards by calling someone with an opposing viewpoint stupid – and that’s the tame version.
Attacking Drudge on the basis of his sexuality? And just what does that have to do with anything?
It’s even worse when the media initiates the invective. Take Michael Tomasky’s piece in the Daily Beast excoriating Romney and calling him a “racist” for his speech to the NAACP. I know Michael. I work with him. He’s a great guy – always pleasant, inclusive and a team player. But when I read his viscous attack, my heart grew heavy. The piece became another example of the crippling invective that is paralyzing our political processes.
Enough already. Maybe commenters and scribes and politicians need to channel this pent-up anger into something constructive. Like playing a heated game of tennis, or kickboxing, or windsurfing. Even gardening if that does it for you.
Call me Pollyanna, but something’s got to give. The problems of the world are too large to spend time vilifying those who don’t believe what you do. And you’re too smart to spend your time doing it just to be heard. Right?
Share this article
You might also like:
Comments
Latest Posts
Facebook Studies Marriage Decisions
May 18th, 2013As a twentysomething woman, I’m always interested to see–when female friends get married–if they make the name change or keep their maiden name.
These days, that decision is usually announced by making it “Facebook official,” by simply changing the relationship status, or changing the last name along with it.
Using these data points, and women’s birth dates, Facebook analyzed what percentage of women from different age groups are taking their husbands’ last names, hyphenating their names or keeping their maiden names. The results were announced on the Facebook Data Science page this week.
Tumblr to Yahoo: Make My Day
May 17th, 2013Is the social blogging site Tumblr about to sell out?
Ad Week’s Mike Shields has the story that Tumblr has been having negotiations about being acquired by Yahoo.
As Shields reports, a deal could make sense for both companies:
“Yahoo is in serious talks with Tumblr to acquire the social blogging site, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks. The deal is not done, but could reach as high as $1 billion, Adweek has learned. Allthingsd.com was first to report on the talks between the two companies.”
Trial By Facebook: A Dangerous Virtual Path
May 17th, 2013I’m a criminal for being a woman, a journalist and someone with the temerity to walk into a bar.
In a fascinating study of both Facebook and freedom, Amnesty International New Zealand launched “Trial by Facebook,” which examines your profile, scours your timeline and “interrogates” yourfriends to find out what you’d be punished for posting, all around the
world. The app came out several months ago, but it’s been making waves
online this week.
Using my own Facebook page as a guinea pig, I found myself convicted 161 times, in 73 countries, for 13 crimes. Literally dodging a bullet, the
contents of my profiles weren’t tawdry enough to get me beheaded or shot dead, but I would be killed by extremists 22 times, sexually assaulted 16 times, imprisoned 58 times and beaten 73 times–and that’s just the beginning of the terror.
Google Plus Pointers, Twitter Fools
May 16th, 2013Tatiana Aders of Social Media News has made my day. If you don’t quite get how to use Google Plus, help is here:
“Google Plus has some of the most robust posting & sharing capabilities of any social network. From rich snippets to photo editing to individual circles, there are so many features that can make your post stand out from the pack. Here are some highlights from a cheat sheet that I built to get the most out of Google Plus posts.”
LinkedIn’s Latest Edict: Hookers Not Welcome
May 16th, 2013Attention ladies of the night and other interested parties: LinkedIn is taking a harder stance against prostitution.
As Mashable noted this week, the job-networking site has altered the language of its user agreement to expressly prohibit people from promoting escort services or prostitution on its pages.
