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31 Jul 2009 05:55 pm

Waiting Too Long

Julian Sanchez makes a decent point:

Mainstream outlets may want to reconsider the point at which it’s worth taking up and debunking these sorts of fringe ideas, even at the risk of giving them undeserved exposure. The pattern we’re seeing in the new media environment is that these conspiracy theories end up getting pretty wide exposure anyway, but only taken up by real journalists once there’s a core group who can’t be disabused of their false beliefs without fairly serious threat to their self images, which is the worst of both worlds. The kooky ideas don’t end up being contained by major media’s refusal to take note of them, and the debunking is less effective when they do.

Amen. My view remains that the MSM's job is not to police the discourse for what is unsayable, but to investigate issues like the birth certificate or Palin's obviously bizarre stories about her pregnancy and debunk or confirm them with reporting. Instead they sit around pontificating about what is appropriate to discuss. It's 2009, dudes. Everything is discussable and being discussed. Get off your high horse and instead of flacking for campaigns and administrations, demand actual answers and real evidence from them.

Grow some, guys. And get over yourselves.

(Hat tip: Massie)

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