One of the most popular columns in InfoWorld magazine is “Notes from the Field” by “Robert Cringely”. A friend of mine wrote the Cringely one week. He said for every other article in InfoWorld, facts have to be verified by two separate sources, but for “Notes from the Field” — a “rumor column — ‘facts’ didn’t have to be verified at all.
Most weblogs are like a rumor column, requiring no factchecking.
In theaters now, “State of Play” starring Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams, Crowe plays an old-school reporter and McAdams a blogger for the flagship company. The movie sets the two apart quickly when the McAdams character makes an inflammatory blog entry before gathering facts, while the Crowe character was still establishing leads.