Orwell's Internet

Interesting story in Newsweek. Even though the Web lends a more democratic voice to Average Joe in developing countries, the regimes in power are actually using it in a big brother-like way to monitor and stifle speech and expression.

Debating the Truth

For anyone who watched the debate tonight, one thing that stood out was Obama constantly saying, "that's simply not true." Let's keep our research hats on over the next few months and make sure we investigate for ourselves what the campaigns, media outlets, and bloggers are feeding us.

We are the only ones responsible for what we believe.

McCain Wins Debate! Wait...what?

Yesterday, McCain wasn't even going to debate. Now his campaign is running ads that he wins the debate. I'm so confused...and so is the Washington Post

The Joker Meets the Decider

The UK Perspective

Check out comments on the debate debate from BBC's website. I'm glad to see that the usually biased BBC is not censoring comments. It's also a nice surprise to see a number of American blokes commenting.

I agree with Brandon Seyferth. If McCain thinks we should stop everything for the sake of the economy, then isn't it justly important to tell the American public how you're going to deal with today's crisis? Change the debate topic to the Economy, because as McCain has so dramatically pointed out, that is the most important issue this week.

How Web Rumors Spread, and How FOX News Snubbed Me.

For the hell of it, I was perusing FOX News' website yesterday and saw that the second headline from the top on the homepage was Biden Dropping Out? Rumor Thrives on Internet. Naturally this got my attention.


As is expected, the first paragraph of the article completely debunks the rumor, saying, "It’s almost certainly just a case of the telephone game gone high-tech." Then the article goes on for 28 additional paragraphs to explore why the Obama campaign might have made this decision (but they didn't) and what would happen if they had made this decision (but they didn't). Essentially, a FOX News web editor used premium headline space, 29 paragraphs of copy, and hundreds of thousands of viewer impressions for a story that is entirely fictitious. Fortunately, the social web allows us to respond and comment on this kind of stuff so that the public isn't mislead. Oh wait, this is the socialist web we're talking about...

Okay this is where I get really angry. When I saw the article last night, I wrote a "comment" suggesting that the decision of Biden to drop out was clearly bogus and I asked FOX News to please vet their stories before printing rumors on top, front page headlines. This morning when I woke up, my comment did not appear, but several other pro-Republican comments did appear. I checked back in a few hours and there were a few moderate to left leaning comments, but most were still republican. My comment still did not appear. So I wrote another comment:

"This is a rumor. Rumor's are not true. If Biden were really going to be dropping out then McCain would be all over it. This is a bogus rumor from the far right, trying to stir up the Republican base because Obama's poll numbers are higher. Welcome to politics."

There is nothing "unlawful, threatening, libelous, or obscene" that would prevent my comment from being posted according to FOX News' editorial guidelines (unless you consider poor grammar libelous). In fact, I affirmed the article's headline. Yet, several hours later my comment is still not published. The site entreats, "FOX News encourages you to participate in this discussion" but clearly this is a lie. Thank you FOX for knowingly spreading a rumor, and crushing any effort to hold up the truth.

Feed me your lies

Let's hear 'em. Comment or send me the most outrageous lie you've told, been told, or heard told (anonymous is okay).

I'll start. When I was 13 and getting contact lenses for the first time, I spilled a little gas on my shoes while filling up my mom's gas tank on the way to my eye doctor appt. At the doctor's office, other people started to smell gas and I was too shy to speak up so the police and three fire trucks were called. Firefighters walked all over the office building with air sensors trying to find the gas leak and I nearly pissed myself worrying that their detectors would lead them to my shoe like some kind of divining rod for liars. The office was closed for the rest of the day.

McCain can't pat his head and rub his tummy at the same time

McCain is postponing his campaign until congressional consensus is achieved on financial market legislation (likely by Monday). He is calling on the Obama camp to delay the first debate which is scheduled to be this Friday. He's apparently putting his country before himself.

Kudos Mr. Senator for deciding to help Americans only on the day that poll numbers have dropped you 9 points lower than Obama, your greatest deficit yet in the White House race. I suppose you would have put the country first when this crisis unmasked itself 10 days ago, had you known there was even a financial crisis going on. I suppose you would have put the country first when you rallied congress for deregulation of Lincoln Savings and Loan during the Keating explosion, had you known you would get caught.

McCain knows that most swing voters in America make their decision immediately after the first Presidential debate. He also knows that he is currently down in the polls significantly as a result of his inability to make sounds decisions regarding financial markets. He also knows that the financial markets are increasingly linked to foreign affairs, so this subject will come up in the debate on Friday.


In all fairness, McCain's move is bold and shows initiative. He appears sympathetic to the Nation by reigning in his own ambitions for the good of the country. But let's be honest here. McCain will go to Washington to rally congress to immediately pass this bill giving Bush and Paulson a blank check, unquestionable power, and no oversight. Bush wins, McCain appears bold, and Average Joe owes Congress $700 billion from his own pocketbook. Remember the Wizard of Oz? Bring him out from behind the curtain and suddenly he's not so benevolent.

I Love Arianna

Last week I was very fortunate to hear Arianna Huffington speak at the Web2.0 conference in NYC. What I like most about her is her passion! She feels so strongly that media should represent the people, not preach to the people. She deplores misinformation in the media, and welcomes feedback on her own writing. The Huffington Post is always on the lookout for new writers so if any of you have an opinion, speak up!

Washington Times meets Starship Trooper?

Has anyone seen the layout of the Washington Times Homepage? It looks like the control panel of a spaceship.

Pocket Google

Google announced its new mobile phone software, ensuring that the money loving company can generate ad revenue anywhere in the world.

Well, not anywhere. The biggest downside of the new Google enabled phone is that it will only be released in markets where T-Mobile's 3G network is available. The software can't run on slower networks. The software is being released on T-Mobile's G1 phone.

The coolest thing about the software, built on the Android platform, is that it is open, so anyone with the know-how can create an application for use on the software. This isn't particularly new (thank you Apple) but it's certainly pushing the philosophy of openness out to the rest of the world.

truth-0-meter

cool site

Truth is what you get other people to believe!

Thank goodness for friends. I didn't know what I was going to write about today, but I opened up gmail to find that my friend Balika saw my blog and the idea of "truth" struck a chord with her. She sent me the text of an acceptance speech by Tommy Smothers at the Emmy Awards this past weekend:

Tommy Smothers, accepting an award commemorating the "Smothers Brothers" comedy hour, quickly turned to politics.

"Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard," Mr. Smothers says, clutching the Emmy and wearing a purple tie. "So the freedom of hearing is just about as important as the freedom of speaking. And it's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war." (Mild applause.) "And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action." (Loud applause.) "So I dedicate this Emmy to all people who feel compelled to speak out, and not afraid to speak to power, and won't shut up, and refuse to be silenced."

He seemed to be about to leave the stage, then returned to the microphone to add "one last thought." The word truth exists in every language, he says, and adds: "Truth is what you get other people to believe."

Talk about drama...but of course, it is the Emmy's! Seriously though, his comments on freedom of expression and freedom of speech are noble, idealistic, and naturally I couldn't agree with him more. Problem is, he undercuts himself in that last line, "truth is what you get other people to believe." So essentially, we all have the freedom to say whatever we want (and with the Internet, we truly do!) and regardless of efficacy, those preachers, reporters, writers, bloggers, etc. who are more convincing will have their ideas rise to the top as truth?

I actually don't agree that truth is what you get other people to believe. Most people's beliefs are ingrained in them by the time they're adults, so you're not likely to change anyone's beliefs. Instead, I think truth is when you say something that most people agree with. Example: Barack Obama is a Muslim. 19% of rural Americans believe this statement is true. So in a town like Findlay Ohio, Barack Obama is a Muslim. " It's a fact, my dad told me so." But in Washington, DC, my own town, Barack Obama is clearly not a Muslim. I'm not suggesting that Washington holds the high ground on truth, but this just goes to show you that truth is what most people believe, and that truth looks very different depending on where you are.

Truth vs. the Web

I like truth. I seek truth. Which is why I hate the web.

Well...that's not true, I don't hate the web. On the contrary, my job is the web. What I hate is how people are using the web. For instance, my uncle recently sent me an email about Barack Obama saluting the National Anthem. These are Barack's "words:"

"It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing.' If that were our anthem, then I might salute it."

Clearly a vetted presidential candidate did not say this (it's actually a satire from blogger John Semmens). Nonetheless, someone published this somewhere on the web, someone else linked to it or emailed it to a friend, and suddenly it's gospel. That's the problem with the web. Information spreads SO quickly that it's taken as fact before it's validated.

So, a customer could write scathing remarks about you on blogs or discussion boards faster than you can debunk or respond to their complaint. On the one hand, this empowers average joe to be a participant in society (writing about political candidates, writing about cable companies, writing about poor service at a coffee shop). Empowerment is great! Especially after tiresome decades of having news/information fed to us by large politically motivated media corporations.

Empowerment is also very very dangerous, in the case of my uncle who sends "news" around to his friends and family without verifying it. For some examples, lookup the keywords "barack," "palin," "mccain." Then check out the page count for any of the bogus looking posts to see just how many people are reading bogus information.