Tyranny of the Formerly Oppressed

My recent 15 hours of fame during the Eurotunnel debacle got me thinking about the nature of social media.

I am all about the democratization of the web.  Always on the David side of any David & Goliath equation, I am delighted to see the little guy finally having his day.  However, there is an inherent problem -- the tyranny of the formerly oppressed.

Say what you will, but the beauty of pokey traditional media was that there was a process in place, one that involved editing and fact checking, which meant that stories were presented without an editorial slant and containing verified facts.  Now the most ill-informed rumor can spread like wildfire and even be picked up by traditional media, thus giving it an air of credibility and the status of truth.  The citizen journalists -- us citizen journalists -- have no editor, no fact-checker, no filter.

I challenge us all to stick to these guidelines:

1. Be responsible:  fact-check.  
   
2. Be skeptical:  are these trusted sources? Don't just report random crap from sites or people that you don't know (much harder now with the new re-tweet functionality on Twitter).  Ask yourself: have you heard your information from more than one source? 
   
3. Be objective:  yes, yes, the nature of social media is subjective, but a subjective opinion can be presented in an objective manner.
   

Try to uphold journalistic integrity, even if you're not pulling down a journalist's pay.  Yes, Leila, I hear you laughing.