Bloggers who helped circulate financial information about the family over the weekend backed off a bit Tuesday. "It's the difference between Google and journalism," said Rick Moran, who penned a piece for The American Thinker. "It's been proven that the family was means-eligible."This admission brings up an important point: that despite what the right-wing shriekers may claim, they are not "citizen journalists" or indeed any other kind of journalists. Thers has a good summation and analysis of the mad journatastic skillz that the shriekers used to determine the Frosts' situation: quote engines and Google, basically.
But, see, there's a little limitation that Google has. It doesn't necessarily tell you about the real world. What it tells you is what people have said on the internet. That's all. If what they've said is wrong, or incomplete, or out of date, or without context, Google can't help you with that. If all you're relying on is the internet, then you're not a journalist. You're just somebody with a computer.
Cross-posted at The Vanity Press.
