The internet has clearly changed the news business, very fast reporting of events, very inexpensive news source operations and an insane degree of competition for our attention.
I read on the internet from a number of news sources, and under my skeptical, septuagenarian, analytical eye, I’ve learned that: Breaking news is dramatic and most likely lacking essential, accurate facts; wait a couple days. Opinion often masquerades as news; just because a news organization can find someone to say something “interesting” does not mean that it comes from a qualified, representative source, is true, or ever was. A headline that contains words like “could,” “suggests,” “might” or “may” is probably not currently factual news; perhaps in the future in a galaxy far, far away it could be.
And then I read The Columbian digital version and look at the coincidence with what I just read from other internet sources — less drama, more factual reports that match trusted news sources, local news, a breath of reality rather than quasi-fictional drama. I may not have been paid to write this. By the way, a dinosaur-killing asteroid could hit Earth in 2026. It’s a big job, sorting fact from fertilizer.
