The truth is out there

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts recently wrote a terrific piece on the downside of blogworld. His subject: the conspiracy theories that started making the rounds once again following the anniversary of 9/11. Read the whole thing, but here's a key excerpt:

You might call it cynicism, but cynicism is quaint and 20th century compared to this new tendency to reflexively reject any facts provided by government or the dreaded mainstream media. Conspiracy theorizing is not new -- ask Elvis next time you see him -- but what is new is that the Internet has broken the government/media monopoly on the dissemination and definition of news.

While that's good in many ways, one troubling byproduct is this new notion that you cannot truly understand the great and terrible events of our time without access to some ''factier'' facts promulgated by some website most of us never heard of with an ideological slant that conveniently mirrors one's own.

Thanks to Media Nation reader M.S.