The Daily Me?

Nicholas Kristof:

Some of the obituaries these days aren’t in the newspapers but are for the newspapers. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is the latest to pass away, save for a remnant that will exist only in cyberspace, and the public is increasingly seeking its news not from mainstream television networks or ink-on-dead-trees but from grazing online.

When we go online, each of us is our own editor, our own gatekeeper. We select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about.

Nicholas Negroponte of M.I.T. has called this emerging news product The Daily Me. And if that’s the trend, God save us from ourselves.

That’s because there’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information — but rather information that confirms our prejudices. We may believe intellectually in the clash of opinions, but in practice we like to embed ourselves in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber.

...

There is much irony here when you consider the liberal media echo chamber that dominates the dead trees version of the news. I suppose he is talking about blogs like this one who search the online media for things we find interesting. But how did a conservative like ME find an article like this to blog about?

Regular readers will note that I often post comments on stories in the NY Times that I find to support my point of view as well as those with which I differ. One thing I rarely do is look at liberal blogs. Too many of them substitute insult for logic. Insults are very appealing to the already convinced but they are otherwise unpersuasive.

I hope that papers like the Times find a way to survive. Blogging would not be as much fun without them.