Those Internets Strike

No one will know what really happened this past weekend with Houston Nutt for a while. By what happen, let me be clear I am not casting any judgment on the rumors. What I'm more concerned about is the process that brought us to the point that the story went from website hint to national television network within the space of 24 hours.

For the moment, this is another unfortunate ramping up of the clash between traditional and new media. A fundamental part of the problem is the shifting scale of sourcing. Are two sources required? What if those two sources are not independent of each other? What about an individual who runs his own blog, and has a different standard than when he is working for his traditional media outlet? What if the same applied, but it was a radio talk show and a media outlet? Speed is one of the great problems, as competing media -- both similar and dissimilar -- battle to be first.

When all the dust settles, one can only hope that the parties may be able to come together and figure out how to better control these outbursts.