Fact checking please

Perfect timing. Listening to a podcast this morning I was heartened to hear Amber Mac tell Mac Cast listeners about the importance of the editor to users. Way too much hype is out there about "unfiltered" being better. In the real world people only have so many hours in a day and don't have time for unfiltered content. Last week I mentioned why this makes Google's news feeds so great to feed into my newsreader.

Today is another prime example. TNL.net says in a story "I did not expect I would end up getting something that few others are aware of and maybe even a scoop." Maybe. Well several people who should know better like Doc Searls, Phillip Torrone and Dave Winer all announce the news as well.

Here's the thing, a quick Google (or any search engine) search would have pointed out that The Mac Observer had this story two plus months ago. On June 9th TMO's story provided not only the tidbit from TNL's blog but the back-story on how NPR's decision in January was made into the most inconvenient mess for Audible users.

Unfortunately as good as the blogosphere is there are all too often times where it produces yesterday's last month's news as a current story. Then the echo chamber picks it up and runs.