Liberal Talk Radio

Has Google, that benevolent hegemon of the online world, jumped the shark with its new “comment” feature? The idea is that the primary sources involved in a news story that’s linked on Google News (say, the politician or scientist who was interviewed) will get the opportunity to comment directly and give “the full story.”

As much of a new-media guy as I am, I still believe in intermediaries. This feature is designed to more or less circumvent the journalist. It makes journalism even more of a he-said-she-said game than it already is. If a journalist interviews someone, and that person turns out to be a quack, I want the journalist to tell me, “this guy’s a quack.” I don’t want to have to read his whole quacky “comment.”

On the other hand, more information is more information, and it’s more raw information for bloggers to chew on and digest.