{"id":34603,"date":"2012-04-19T00:03:40","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T07:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=34603"},"modified":"2014-12-30T17:43:32","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T00:43:32","slug":"cheap-communications-technology-makes-media-more-democratic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/04\/cheap-communications-technology-makes-media-more-democratic.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheap communications technology makes media more democratic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That, like all things merely human, has a good side and a bad side.\u00a0 The good side is obvious: media stops being the plaything of a few rich men and women. The joy of watching Old Media squirm at being caught in a lie by the vigilant fact checkers of the blogosphere should warm the cockles of any normal person\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

But on the downside, cheap media technology also gives us the Any Idiot With a Keyboard phenomenon which allow people to live out the motto \u201cSo that No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Will Ever Go Unpublished Again!\u201d<\/p>\n

Case in point: Kevin O\u2019Brien sends along a link to this latest piece of demagoguery from the Thing that Used to Be Conservatism<\/a>:<\/p>\n

He remarks:<\/p>\n

Innuendo, non-sequiters, demagoguery. I mean, the conservative cause certainly can do better than this.<\/p>\n

If this guy wants to attack unions, let him have the stones to man up and make a case against unions, instead of creating a really bizarre straw man argument that liberals conflate union membership with families so that union thugs become lovable. There is simply no evidence that the term \u201cworkers\u201d means \u201cpeople who don\u2019t work\u201d, or that a person who uses the word \u201cworker\u201d is a crypto-Marxist. This is anti-intellectual demagoguery at its worst.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cheap technology allows ordinary people to do great\u2013and awful\u2013things. It\u2019s a force multiplier. So a couple of people, working in their basement can, say, do stuff like this, bringing joy to the hearts of a vast audience:<\/p>\n