Out-Drudging Drudge

I think it’s implicit in the way that a Web site is produced that our standards of accuracy are lower. Besides, immediacy is more important than accuracy, and humor is more important than accuracy.

— Nick Denton, founder of the gossip blogs Gawker and Wonkette

So that one’s going in the quote server. Not much more you can say about the level of political “reporting” nowadays. Wonkette’s odious editor, Ana Marie Cox, said proudly, “They accused me of trying to out-Drudge Drudge. Which I love, and I’d do it if I could.”

This was Slashdotted the same day that Romenesko pointed out a column by William Powers saying that people increasingly do not get their news from any single media outlet, but from referrals by friends, blogs, and the like:

Do you prefer The Washington Post, The New York Times, or The Wall Street Journal? Feeling strongly about such choices has become an eccentric affectation, like wearing a bow tie. Curious people see all of these outlets — now and then, when they have a moment. But that’s not how most of us get our news.

I guess I’m a bow-tie wearer; I still get a large proportion of my news from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. But on the other hand, I (obviously) also read things like Slashdot and Romenesko. In the end, I think it’s less the type of medium (blog versus newspaper) than the quality of the journalism. People who think what they read on Drudge is “news” probably also consider The New York Post a reliable newspaper.