I Blog Dead People

The tyranny of the uninformed in the Internet age

Comments (0) By Steven Leigh Morris Thursday, Apr 8 2010

The crisis of journalism and the ascendancy of blogs are not only about the collapse of coverage and the printed page but the removal of editors who understand codes of ethics and the balance between getting a scoop and ensuring that said scoop is actually true. It's the editor who legitimizes the writer and the press outlet. And that's really the core of our crisis.

To misquote the Book of John: "In the beginning was the word; then came the editor."

ILLUSTRATION BY MITCH HANDSONE

Not dead, actually: Harvey Perr

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In the middle of writing this, I discovered (on April 5) a new post by Enci at bitter-lemons, with the headline "L.A. Weekly Recognizes Deaf Theater Community, Then Snubs Them." An actress from Deaf West Theatre reported to Enci that the Weekly had provided no interpreters for the hearing-impaired nominees at its theater-awards ceremony on March 29. In fact, the Weekly had been in touch with Deaf West Theatre about this very issue. In a conversation before the awards, DWT representative Laura Hill had offered to provide interpreters, which the Weekly would pay for. And that was the last we heard from anybody at Deaf West Theatre. Though the paper neglected to follow up, a dropped ball is not a "snub," which Mitchell and Enci — and the actress who contacted them — might have discovered had they made any attempt to get the Weekly's side of the story.

As of this article's press deadline, L.A. Weekly has received no letter of complaint from Deaf West Theatre or any of its members, which calls into question not only the validity of the blog post but also its veracity.

So it goes. ...