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April 04, 2006
Blogging editing the FIRST draft of history
One of the strengths of technology in general and blogging in particular is the ability to spread information quickly and fact check it. An excellent example of this is here:
I have been talking with a producer of the NBC Dateline show and he is in the process of filming a piece on anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination in the USA. They are looking for some Muslim male candidates for their show who would be willing to go to non-Muslim gatherings and see if they attract any discriminatory comments or actions while being filmed.They recently taped two turbaned Sikh men attending a football game in Arizona to see how people would treat them. They set them up with hidden microphones and cameras, etc.
...
They also want someone who is fairly well accomplished and has contributed to American society at large in some meaningful way.That said, I'm urgently looking for someone who can be filmed this April 1st weekend at a Nascar event (and other smaller events) in Virginia. NBC is willing to fly in someone and cover their weekend expenses. The filming would take place all day on Saturday and Sunday.
Within one week of the sending of the initial e-mail, (apparently the sender didn't read this post of ours) it was posted on Michelle Malkin's blog, within 9 hours it is verified that it is a true story by NBC and a letter writing campaign is well on the way and the story has spread throughout the blogisphere generating many pixels.
The fact that somebody is trying to game the news is nothing new (see William Randolph Hearst: you furnish the pictures I'll furnish the war) what's new is how much harder it is to get away with it today.
Consider this: A little over a decade ago NBC's Dateline ran a story with a doctored crash of a GM truck. It took years for it to be exposed and was quite a scandal to the network.
Following a tip, GM hired detectives, searched 22 junkyards for 18 hours, and found evidence to debunk almost every aspect of the crash sequence. Last week, in a devastating press conference, GM showed that the conflagration was rigged, its causes misattributed, its severity overstated and other facts distorted. Two crucial errors: NBC said the truck's gas tank had ruptured, yet an X ray showed it hadn't; NBC consultants set off explosive miniature rockets beneath the truck split seconds before the crash -- yet no one told the viewers.
For those not old enough to remember the Wikipedia entry is here (yes I know it's Wikipedia but I'm old enough to remember when it happened, the entry is legit.) Apparently NBC is trying something much like that again.
Looks like NASCAR won't have to bother with detectives since due to the power of blogging they have been caught even before the segment is complete, Glenn's Army of Davids at Work.
Technology isn't just writing the first draft of history, it is editing the draft before it is finished!
Posted by Peter at April 4, 2006 07:28 PM