[Not sure why this didn't post earlier. I blame the NSA.]
My Monday column and the link-bait model of digital journalism:
The last ten days or so of NSA coverage represents a dark chapter in the short history of digital journalism. This is the era of link bait — the exploitation of the viral kneejerk outrage of readers who accept headlines at face value and circulate those headlines without questioning the accuracy of the reporting as long as it confirms their bias. The false, misleading reporting that’s been hurried into the tubes recently has taken on a Fox News Channel publicity model: be the first to get the attention of the audience no matter what, then suss out the facts later (if at all) when no one’s paying attention any more.
The impact of this new form of journalism, now evident in the NSA coverage, can be summarized with the often cited Mark Twain quotation: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” In the context of digital media, it’s an increasingly effective formula for bigtime viral traffic.
It happened with the Washington Post‘s initial PRISM story, it happened with Glenn Greenwald’s story in which he wrote that the NSA has “direct access” to servers owned by the various tech giants and, over the weekend, it happened in spectacular fashion with a bombshell article posted on CNET by chief political correspondent Declan McCullagh.
The headline that dispersed through social media and political blogs like the swine flu: “NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants.” [READ ON]