A good example of a new media weak spot

         A thoughtful post on a blog about the future of democracy with the decline in newspapers (and it's skeptical about them) offers a window into what I think is one of the problems with the new media. After two screens of thoughtful opinion, we are dumped into the world "citizen journalist" commentators, virtually none of whom address the points made in the essay and virtually all rife with racism (the commentators immediately attacked the press as pro-Democrat, consistently using an especially ugly racist term to describe our next president).

         The point is that the new media needs to grow up if it's going to be treated as an adult. There is some advantage of removing some of the filters employed by the old media that have, in my opinion, all too often limited its scope.  But unfettered comment, unfortunately, has opened the gates to vitriolic, un-thought-out spewing of opinion based on little and with no attempt to support arguments.

      It reminds me far too often of a person I know who often says "Well, I don't know anything about it [it being the subject of the conversation], but I think . . . ."