[ExI] death of print news

[Lee Corbin]

spike wrote:

> ...caused me
> to recognize a big advantage to the coming death of print news.  The news
> cycle manipulation and rush to a particular deadline that you describe both
> go away, being artifacts of print news cycles.  Traditionally these have
> been one issue per day, with special arrangements on weekends.  Now, news
> stories can go up on the site whenever the reporter is satisfied she has the
> facts, instead of when some arbitrary schedule demands.  Rebuttals can be
> offered quickly on politically opposite news sites.  Balanced reporting will
> be accomplished, and misinformation can be greatly reduced.

Yes, but I think that there is a cost you're not taking
into account.

> Trees will be saved too, and the furry little animals that live in them.

Literal Lee replies: "No, more trees will grow to replace
those cut down, and in the bargain there'll be fewer forest
fires."

> May we bury the print news quickly, without mourning their passing.

Here is the problem.

Let me take you back to ancient Rome, where, if you wanted to
see Cicero, you had to go downtown and to his office, where
you could schedule an appointment with his secretary.

Rome, where Latin-speaking parrots were all the rage...

Rome, a country fully yin so many striking ways as civilized
as our own society.

Mr Julius Caesar was in the habit (necessary, it turns out
for any successful politician then) of simply bribing
*everyone* in sight to get what he wanted, and to threaten
and intimidate everyone else. And there was no way to raise
a public outcry.

But by 1700, one had to begin to worry about the newspapers.

For everyone, you see, (or rather everyone who mattered)
read the same papers. Wrongdoing could easily and often
did come to public notice.

Oh, sure, your Federalist papers and my Republican papers
would lie and defame like crazy, but the discriminating
reader really could find out that Hamilton, say, was a
bastard, (back in the days when that was a bad thing).

We may end up losing public accountability once people
are glued only into their own information channels in
an infinite sea of information.

Lee