Order from Chaos

Endless human conflict has been caused a simple disagreement over philosophy: is it better to have life organized by a few central leaders or by the uncoordinated actions of small groups or individuals. One example would be the 20th century wars between communism (strong central organization) and free enterprise (minimal central authority).

The same argument appears now in the conflict between the major wire services and bloggers. The wire services claim decades of experience in their field with layers of fact checkers and editors to review and verify the stories. By contrast, bloggers are layerless and unorganized beyond the individual writer. Bloggers seem to be winning the battle over fact-checking.

On the other hand, maybe the major news media don't even try to check their facts.