[Media says] You'll miss us when we're gone (compares bloggers to trolls)

The National Post ^ | August 06, 2008 | Jonathan Kay

[2ndDivisionVet]

With media stocks plummeting, a noisy army of pundits is predicting the imminent extinction of print newspapers and magazines. I hope they're wrong--for two reasons.

The obvious reason is self-interest: If freebie blogs and news aggregators kill off the National Post and its ilk, then I'm going to have to go back to my high school job, manning the drive-thru at McDonald's.

But I have a more noble reason, too: a genuine, altruistic desire for an educated citizenry. Not to be old-fashioned, but there are certain kinds of important stories that simply cannot be covered, except by deep-pocketed traditional media organizations employing professional journalists.

This thought struck me with particular force on Sunday, as I read "Malwebolence," Mattathias Schwartz's extraordinary article about Internet trolls in this week's issue of The New York Times Magazine.

You probably have met an Internet troll -- even if you don't know the term. They are the juvenile cretins who infest Internet message boards, taunting the earnest types chatting away about Gossip Girl, or Barack Obama, or Scientology. Their method is to post willfully ignorant, insulting messages, then sit back and enjoy the righteous, impotent fury aroused among the true believers.

Trolling is an inherently nihilistic activity -- which is why most trolls tend to be adolescent males, the sort of specimens who would otherwise entertain themselves by using bathroom graffiti to libel the sexual habits of high-school classmates. But there is a small elite that has turned trolling into a full-time calling. They congregate on anonymous Web sites such as 4chan.org, and informally tally the "lulz" they've earned by humiliating others.

[Hi Heels]

You might want to consider a flip up table mounted to the wall directly in front of you.

[Hi Heels]

My comment had nothing to do with history. If you take any college journalism class, the absolute first rule they teach you is impartiality. Report, inform, do not opinionize.

Now we both know that doesn't happen and the fact that some liberal college professor touts it is ludicrous, but that's what they told me. First day.

[snoringbear]

I can readily see that I am not the only one that has given this issue some extensive thought. Very impressive drawings, I may indeed consider building one of these in preparation for that inevitable day of the demise of the paper newspaper.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

oic

[lesser_satan]

thx

[Hi Heels]

One word. Ebay.

[metesky]

Well sure they try to, or pretend to try to, teach impartiality knowing full well that each and every human being has prejudices and views that will eventually come out. They have to, the human brain being what it is.

We bind judges down with laws to keep their personal prejudices from clouding their judgment and look what happens anyway.