Journalistic Integrity

So, I've been reading the SL Herald lately! I won't even bother to link to it, because it's all libelous vitriol, conjecture, and it's writers, for the most part are charlatans.

The ammount of posts focusing on the issues of the PN, griefers, Justice League, and making fun of furries has left them at the status of tabloid, I feel like I should be picking up a copy at the supermarket checkout line or something.

But it's not just the herald, Wired recently had a piece glorifying griefers, and making them seem like a valid subculture or hobby. News blogs are recycled in a circle of hype and then disrespect - an article on SL is posted on some website, a day or a week later, it will be paraphrased without credit as a new article on another blog. The Google News listing for SL will show that - http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Second+Life .

Facts are copied from sources without being checked. Parody blogs are taken as serious by 'authors' looking for a quick post topic, and replicated as serious (See the latest parody article about Halo soldiers invading SL - copied and reprinted as the own work of other authors in the news circle).

It makes me sick. And the fact that this is happening with something like SL, makes me worry about -REAL- news. How many news organizations are doing this on articles about things important to 'first life'?

-Micheru