Thursday, March 12, 2009

Tweets by twits, or: Journalism (??? - 2009)

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos is now conducting interviews with senators about complex omnibus appropriations bills via Twitter. That is, the so-called Fourth Estate is now holding U.S. politician's feet to the fire with in-depth questions 140-character "tweets" about the details of $410 billion in federal spending. This, apparently, is one of the blessings of technological progress -- and without a doubt a more persuasive case for Luddism than anything the Unabomber ever wrote.

That this technological gimmickry (bullshit) is seemingly being proposed by over-eager P.R. types for the benefit of people in my demographic -- 20-something Gen Y tech-porn enthusiasts -- is what really kills me (and it doesn't provide much in the way of hope for the future of the media in this country).

Here's an optimisitc look at the quality of journalism you can expect to find in, say, a decade:

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